Aircraft
Dewoitine D 510
The Dewoitine 500 series represented the most modern, technically ambitious fighters of their day. They marked a transition phase between open-cockpit biplanes of the 1920s and the more modern aircraft of World War II. In 1930 the French Aeronautique Militaire issued specifications for a new fighter to replace the aging Nieuport-Delage ND 62s then deployed. It fell upon designer Emile…
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THE NEXT-GENERATION AIR DOMINANCEÂ FIGHTER
The turbopropjet-powered General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper is a most effective unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) that continues to seek and destroy enemy targets. Formerly known as Predator B, the Reaper can carry up to 3,800 pounds of ordnance—800 pounds internal, 3,000 pounds external. It was developed from the MQ-1B Predator B…
This pod-mounted laser weapon is finally under construction.
By Kyle MizokamiFeb 25, 2021 The Air Force is finally on the verge of equipping aircraft with the means to shoot down incoming missiles. The Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) pod will protect aircraft from air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles. A full test of the pod system is expected in…
Sukhoi Su-15 Series Part I
In the 1950s the Moscow-based Central Aero and Hydrodynamics Institute (CAHI, often rendered as TsAGI) had refined a configuration for Mach-2 aircraft with a triangular delta wing and swept tailplanes. This shape was used by Mikoyan for the MiG-21 family, and by Sukhoi for the significantly larger Su-9 all-weather interceptor.…
Sukhoi Su-15 Series Part II
The Su-15 and Su-15UT are powered by two Tumanskiy R11F2S-300 or R11F2SU-300 axial-flow afterburning turbojets rated at 3,900 kgp (8,600 lbst) at full military power and 6,175 kgp (13,610 lbst) in full afterburner. The R11F2S-300 is a two-spool turbojet featuring a three-stage low-pressure (LP) compressor, a three-stage high-pressure (HP) compressor,…
Spitfire XIVs versus Bf 109Ks
Final Encounter (Spitfire v Messerchmitt) by Michael Turner. Wing Commander J E Johnnie Johnson, Spitfire XIV, and Major Gunther Rall, Messerschmitt Bf109K-4, over the Western Front in May 1945. A tribute to the fighter pilots of the RAF and Luftwaffe on the 50th anniversary of Peace in Europe, 1945 Since…
Air-Combat in the Ludendorff Offensives
The German Flying Corps had failed to achieve the air superiority that was necessary to the success of their offensives of March and April 1918. Had the Jagdgeschwader been able to avail themselves, at the start of the Ludendorff Offensives, of the new combat aircraft that were at last beginning…