Aircraft
Lockheed XB-30
The Lockheed Model 249-58-01, officially designated XB-30, resembled a militarised Constellation from the outside, preserving the wings and tail of the commercial aircraft, but with a new fuselage and a glazed nose incorporating a bomb-aimer’s post, and with two bomb bays designed for eight 2000 lb bombs. It was to be defended by ten 12.5-mm machine guns and a 20-mm…
Most Recent
Dassault Rafale
Rafale B01 was the two-seat prototype, which completed its initial flight in April 1993. B01 was the first Rafale to fly with the RBE2 multi-mode radar, housed within a recontoured nose An early Rafale M of the French Navy. The Rafale is the only non-U.S. fighter cleared to operate from…
Dassault Mirage 2000
A Mirage 2000H (known locally as Vajra – Thunderbolt) of No.1 ‘The Tigers’ Squadron, Central Air Command, Indian Air Force, based at Maharajpura Air Force Station, Gwailor, in the 1990s. A former MiG-21 unit, No.1 Squadron was the second IAF Mirage 2000 operator after No.7 Squadron. A Mirage 2000C of…
Pre-WWII Air Corps Bomber Doctrine I
In January 1935 Major Wilson drafted the tactical school comment on a proposed Air Corps doctrine prepared by the General Staff’s War Plans Division. Wilson’s concepts about the proper use of air force were explicit: “The principal and all important mission of air power, when its equipment permits, is the…
Pre-WWII Air Corps Bomber Doctrine II
General Marshall, who had openly opposed the president’s fixation on air power during the conference, preferred to strengthen the entire Army, not just one component. Furthermore, he and Arnold both agreed that “a lot of airplanes by themselves…were not air power.” Consequently, the War Department, applying its best military judgment,…
ROYAL AIRCRAFT FACTORY F.E.8
The Royal Aircraft Factory applied its talents to the design of a single-seat fighter as soon as the need for such a machine became clear with John Kenworthy completing his design for Fighting Experimental No. 8 or F.E.8 in May 1915. Like rival designers and limited by firing a machine…
German Naval Aviation War II 1939 Part I
When war was declared with Great Britain and France on 3 September 1939, the Heinkel He 115 was beginning to enter service. However, owing to the imperfections of the LT F5 torpedo, the new floatplane was unable to carry the weapon as it was incapable of flying slowly enough to…