Aircraft
Bell V22 Osprey
The Osprey is the world’s first tiltrotor warplane. It features the versatility of a helicopter and the speed of a conventional aircraft. Military planners have long recognized that helicopters, with their relatively slow forward speed and high operating costs, are unsuited for certain types of combat missions. Bell began addressing the problem as early as 1958, when it fielded the…
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German Naval Aviation War II 1939 Part II
While the aircraft of Trägergruppe 186 were soon removed from F.d.Luft Ost, the remaining squadrons continued their activities over Poland and the Baltic Sea. On 16 September SKL suggested that boarding commandos be formed from personnel of both 1./KĂĽ.Fl.Gr. 306 and 1./KĂĽ.Fl.Gr. 706 to augment the naval forces already tasked…
German Naval Aviation War II 1939 Part III
On the evening of 7 October the battleship Gneisenau and light cruiser Köln sailed from the Jade into the North Sea, accompanied by the destroyers Wilhelm Heidkamp, Friedrich Ihn, Diether von Roeder, Karl Galster, Theodor Riedel, Max Schulz, Bernd von Arnim and Friedrich Eckoldt. They were to bolster the war…
German Naval Aviation War II 1939 Part IV
However, the reconnaissance demands were stretching the naval air arm to exhaustion. At the end of October MGK West flatly informed SKL that there were insufficient aircraft available to cover the tasks allocated effectively. Each large-scale operation that was mounted resulted in exhaustion of the available crews, rendering them ineffective…
Nieuport fighters over Verdun I
While the French were massing their Nieuport fighters over Verdun, the RFC prepared to support its Somme offensive with Nos. 24, 29 and 32 Sqns, equipped with DH 2 pushers. The RFC had also acquired a handful of Nieuport 16s, but those were allotted to reconnaissance squadrons. A notable example…
Nieuport fighters over Verdun II
The first Fokker E I appeared over Flanders in September 1915 when Flgobmt Erich Bödecker began escorting naval two-seaters on their reconnaissance sorties. This was in response to the appearance of the first Belgian scout, a single-seat Nieuport 10 flown by Lt Henri Crombez, on 26 August. Although an able…
Sea Kings and Commandos
Westland Sea King HC.4 above and 1 above The helicopter most identified with U. S. long-range SAR operations in SEA first entered service as an ASW helicopter with the U. S. Navy. On March 11, 1959, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation test pilots lifted off in the S-61, or H-3 Pelican, later…