Aircraft
B-36: Early Strategic Bomber
Strategic bombing stood at the core of the argument for a separate U. S. Air Force. The use of airplanes to deliver bombs to targets far beyond the battlefield represented an independent, offensive mission that would justify the creation of an air arm equal in status to the Army and the Navy. During the 1920s and 1930s, American airpower enthusiasts…
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The Dragon – U-28A Draco Special Ops Aircraft
This toned-down camouflage laden PC-12 turboprop is not used to fly business executives around and about. This is a U-28A operated by Air Force Special Operations Command. Two U-28As were present at Nellis during Class 19A WSINT flying missions from the super base to desert strips in the Nevada Test…
The WWI Air War over the Sea
When in August, 1918, I found on visiting France a complete chain of Naval Aviation Stations engaged in a systematic patrol of the waters of that “neck of the bottle” through which our troops and supplies had to pass, I had but to examine the weekly charts of German submarine…
LongShot Unmanned Air Vehicle
Artist’s concepts of LongShot UAV. DARPA Initiates Design of LongShot Unmanned Air Vehicle Program seeks to significantly increase engagement range and effectiveness of air-to-air weapons. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to create an air-launched drone that carries its own smaller weapons, a concept that brings to mind…
THE CARPETBAGGER PROJECT I
The major USAAF effort to supply the Resistance movements and secret armies in Europe began in the summer of 1943 under the codename ‘Carpetbagger’, which someone had lifted from the annals of the American Civil War. At first the Americans had been as unprepared for Resistance support as the British…
THE CARPETBAGGER PROJECT II
Jedburgh teams suit up in England prior to boarding a ‘Carpetbagger’ B-24. The crew of the 406th Bomb Squadron standing in front of the Liberator B-24 “Brer Rabbit” which dropped the “VIS” Team during the night from 1st to 2 June 1944. Standing up (left to right): Clinton Rabbit (Pilot)…
Heinkel He 111 over Poland 1939
I./KG 1 ‘Hindenburg’ was the only Kampfgruppe still equipped with He 111Es upon the outbreak of hostilities on 1 September 1939 In the early hours of 1 September 1939 – the first morning of the world’s first Blitzkrieg – two-thirds of the Luftwaffe’s entire He 111 bomber force was being…