At midnight on July 1, 1997, Hong Kong reverts back to Chinese rule in a ceremony attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. A few thousand Hong Kongers protested the turnover, which was otherwise celebratory and peaceful.
In 1839, Britain invaded China to crush opposition to its interference in the country’s economic, social, and political...
Jumat, 30 Juni 2017
Daily Quiz for July 1, 2017
Abraham Zapruder, co-owner of a woman’s clothing company, as an amateur photographer filmed this historic event.
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Hallowed Ground: Port Chicago, California
If you believe that spirits linger in locations where large numbers of men have perished suddenly—not all of them battlefields—then Port Chicago, Calif., qualifies as haunted ground. It’s not much today, an industrial community on Suisun Bay, where the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta meets San Francisco Bay, much of it gathered along either side of the …
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The Adventure’s of Cap’n Crockett
Like his legendary ancestor, Captain Cary Crockett made a name for himself as a fighting man, tasked with taming the Philippine frontier. Clouds of malarial mosquitoes swarmed and the air hung heavy with humidity that evening in 1904. It was typical August weather in the Philippines. Captain Cary Ingram Crockett was resting in his hammock, …
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Elizabeth’s Sea Dogs
Hawkins, Drake, and their fellow English privateers served their queen, repelled the Spanish and made their fortunes in the age of sail. On March 24, 1603, in the darkest hours of a new morning, the “Virgin Queen” of England breathed her last. No family and few close friends remained for the deathwatch, but the ghosts …
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1812: The Bitter End
When Napoleon invaded Russia in the summer of 1812, victory seemed certain—but then came winter. Five years after Napoléon Bonaparte’s retreat from Russia, Stendhal, the French novelist, who had been a supply officer in the emperor’s army during the 1812 campaign, was still afraid of snow: “The retreat from Moscow has left me plainly suspicious …
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What We Learned From Dunkirk, 1940
Were it not for the 338,000-man evacuation of almost the entire British Expeditionary Force and tens of thousands of French poilus from the beaches of Dunkirk, France, in May and June 1940, the history of 20th century Europe might be different. Had the Wehrmacht succeeded in encircling virtually all of England’s professional soldiers, the next …
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The Brink of War at Fashoda
Among the most decisive battles in history are the ones that never took place. In the 1890s European nations vied for colonies and influence in what has come to be known as the “Scramble for Africa.” Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Spain all secured their shares of the continent, but the major players were France …
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The Laughing Paratrooper
Leonard A. Funk Jr. U.S. Army Medal of Honor Holzheim, Belgium January 29, 1945 Leonard Funk, a 5-foot-5-inch, 140-pound western Pennsylvania native, was the most highly decorated American paratrooper of World War II and one of the most highly decorated soldiers ever to serve in the U.S. Army. He was also the main player in …
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September 2017 Table of Contents
The September 2017 issue features a cover story about General Douglas MacArthur's role in the 1945 surrender of Japan
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September 2017 Readers’ Letters
Readers sound off about the recapture of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon in 1968, Congo peacekeepers, military shipwreck scavengers and Napoléon's invasion of Egypt
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Book Review: With Their Bare Hands
Gene Fax shows how the 79th U.S. Infantry Division cut its teeth and learned hard lessons during the 1918 Meuse-Argonne Offensive
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Book Review: Grunt
Author Mary Roach takes a fascinating, often witty look at the R&D process behind cutting-edge military technology
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Book Review: Guibert
Jonathan Abel assesses 18th century French military theorist Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, comte de Guibert
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Book Review: All Behind You, Winston
Roger Hermiston delivers a thorough account of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his cabinet during World War II
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Book Review: Preparing for War
J.P. Clark examines the development of the U.S. Army between 1815 and World War I
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Book Review: Going Deep
Lawrence Goldstone traces the genesis of U.S. combat submersibles and the rivalry between inventors John Holland and Simon Lake
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Book Review: The First European
Pierre Briant explores the diplomatic and military relations between the nation-states of Enlightenment Europe and the Ottoman empire
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Book Review: Silver
Mihir Bose reveals the World War II espionage activities of Bhagat Ram Talway, code name "Silver"
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Dreams of Human-Powered Flight
The experimental Gerhardt Cycleplane made history in 1923, but today is best remembered as an iconic aviation failure. Most everyone has seen the film clip of a multi-winged airplane trundling toward the camera, with a couple of men supporting its flimsy-looking wings until the towering contraption suddenly collapses in a heap. The footage has become …
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Kamis, 29 Juni 2017
June 30, 1936: Gone with the Wind published
Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, one of the best-selling novels of all time and the basis for a blockbuster 1939 movie, is published on this day in 1936.
In 1926, Mitchell was forced to quit her job as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal to recover from a series of physical injuries. With too much time on her hands, Mitchell soon grew restless. Working on a Remington typewriter, a gift from her second husband, John R. Marsh, in their cramped...
Daily Quiz for June 30, 2017
This US President fixed Thanksgiving as the 4th Thursday in November
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Aviation History Book Review: Open Cockpit
Open Cockpit by Arthur Gould Lee This is one of the best personal memoirs of World War I aviation—in many ways the nonfiction equivalent of V.M. Yeates’ novel Winged Victory. Both Lee and Yeates tell the tale of combat in very human terms; as they reveal the technical aspects of WWI fighting, both paint …
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Aviation History Book Review: The Oranges are Sweet
The Oranges are Sweet by Paul M. Sailer, Loden Books, Wadena, Minn., 2011, $34.99. A helicopter-qualified Vietnam veteran living in Wadena County, Minn., Paul Sailer found a local hero to celebrate in county resident Don Beerbower, an original member of the “Pioneer Mustang Group,” the 354th, as well as commander of its 353rd Fighter …
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Aviation History Book Reviews: Aircraft Books
ARADO AR 232 “Tatzelworm” by Jörg Armin Krantzhoff BLOHM & VOSS BV 222 “Wiking” by Rudolf Höfling MESSERSCHMITT BF 109E by Rudolf Höfling MESSERSCHMITT ME 262 by Manfred Griehl, all from Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, Pa., 2012, $14.99 each. While Nazi Germany’s government remains repugnant, the often futuristic aircraft produced for the Luftwaffe in World War …
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Camelback Colonialism
The Somaliland Camel Corps mopped up a Mad Mullah and policed and pacified the British protectorate through two world wars
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Aviation History Book Review: Flying Carpets, Flying Wings
Flying Carpets, Flying Wings: The Biography of Moye W. Stephens by Barbara H. Schultz, Little Buttes Publishing, Lancaster, Calif., 2012, $24.95. Moye Stephens was emblematic of aviation’s Golden Age, the astonishing technological transition from the powered kites of early flight to the powerful warbirds and long-distance aerial haulers of World War II. One of the …
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Aviation History Book Review: MIG-3 Aces of World War 2
MIG-3 Aces of World War 2 by Dmitriy Khazanov and Aleksander Medved, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, England, 2012, $29.95. The Soviet MiG-3 fighter of World War II was a flying disclaimer to the adage that if it looks right, it must fly right. According to Soviet air ace Aleksander Pokryshkin, the MiG-3 could be a“hot race …
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Aviation History Book Review: Panther Red One
Panther Red One: Memoirs of a Fighter Pilot by Air Marshal S. Raghavendran, Amazon Kindle Books, 2012, $2.99. There are many reasons for buying this absolutely fantastic book, but here are the three most important: (1) It gives a vivid picture of the Indian Air Force—a possible future U.S. ally—from its inception to maturity. Air …
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Aviation History Book Review: United States Naval Aviation
United States Naval Aviation, 1919-1941: Aircraft, Airships and Ships Between the Wars by E.R. Johnson, McFarland and Company, Jefferson, N.C., 2011, $45. E.R. “Buddy” Johnson has done it again, producing a book that deserves a spot in everyone’s aviation library, and creating a link to the great aviation books of the past through his meticulous …
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Aviation History Book Review: Skygirls
Skygirls: A Photographic History of the Airline Stewardess by Bruce McAllister and Stephan Wilkinson, Roundup Press, Boulder, Colo., 2012, $49.95. You won’t like this book unless you like airplanes, period photos, history or women. For admirers of all four, especially those old enough to recall when flying was fun, Skygirls is a visual feast, a …
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Duel in the Clouds
America’s first aerial victory against the Luftwaffe came far from Europe, off Iceland. Major John W. Weltman was on alert in the operations building on August 14, 1942, when he received a report that a German Focke-Wulf Fw-200 Condor had just been spotted over Ice- land’s southwest coast, heading for the airport at Reykjavik. Weltman, …
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Atomic Airships
Nuclear-powered airships seemed like a good idea during the Cold War, but for a variety of reasons—some self-evident—they never got off the ground. For the first half of the 20th century, atomic-powered airships were the stuff of science fiction, floating across the pages of pulp magazines that envisioned a future when nuclear energy would be …
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Father of the Black Box
James “Crash” Ryan’s research laid the foundation for the modern flight data recorder, contributing greatly to aviation safety. Aircraft flight data recorders were around even before the beginning of manned, powered flight. Early lighter-than-air data was described by word of mouth or recorded via sketchy handwritten notes on altitude and wind direction. The Wright brothers …
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Israeli’s Other Air Force
The founding father of the IAF’s C-130 squadrons reveals the secret history of an innovative transport service. Flying in one of the Israeli Air Force’s aging C-130s is no treat. The smell of exhaust permeates the cargo hold, which is already stuffy and claustrophobic given the lack of windows and the knee-to-knee seating arrangement, with …
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The Perfect Airlift
Lockheed’s long-lived C-130 Hercules has enjoyed an incredible career, and continues to serve some 60 nations in a variety of roles. Kelly Johnson made few mistakes as Lockheed’s star engineer, but he made a beaut when he offered his opinion of the original C-130. “Hibbard, if you sign that letter,” Johnson said, pointing to the …
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Tomboy of the Air
Blanche Scott, America’s first female stunt pilot, made a lasting mark in aviation. The crowd watched as the fragile-looking biplane spiraled upward against the blue sky, its 35-hp engine straining as it climbed ever higher. At 4,000 feet the pilot suddenly nosed over and dived straight down. Spectators couldn’t tear their eyes away from the …
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Mustang by Another Name
The Collings Foundation has returned a rare North American A-36 dive bomber to flying status. Thanks to a surfeit of renovated, rebuilt, restored, repackaged, replicated and reinvented P-51D Mustangs and the resultant Nose Syndrome (“every- body’s got one…”), there has been a welcome trend in recent years toward the restoration of accurate early P-51s—the Allison-powered …
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Convertible Flying Boat
Britain’s Blackburn B-20 attempted to overcome seaplanes’ inherent aerodynamic deficiencies via retractable center and wingtip floats. The Blackburn B-20 was one of World War II’s most advanced but least publicized aircraft. After the single prototype built was lost in a crash in 1940, its existence was kept secret for the next five years. Despite its …
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The Battle for Baikal
In 1918 the Czecho-Slovak Legion found itself fighting the Red Army in Siberia for control of the world’s deepest lake. ONE OF THE MOST SPECTACULAR YET LITTLE-KNOWN STORIES of World War I and the Russian Revolution is the epic journey of the Czecho-Slovak Legion, whose exploits burst out of Siberia and onto the world stage …
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Mary Jennings Hegar: Shoot Like a Girl
For her actions in Afghanistan medevac pilot Hegar received both the DFC and attention from Hollywood
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Carl A. Spaatz: An Air Power Strategist
A doer and a problem-solver who got results without fanfare, `Tooey' Spaatz was dedicated to creating the Air Force as a separate military service.
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Rabu, 28 Juni 2017
June 29, 1995: U.S. space shuttle docks with Russian space station
On this day in 1995, the American space shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian space station Mir to form the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth.
This historic moment of cooperation between former rival space programs was also the 100th human space mission in American history. At the time, Daniel Goldin, chief of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), called it the beginning of “a new era of friendship and cooperation”...
Daily Quiz for June 29, 2017
In the late 1900’s, David McConnell founded the California Perfume Company, later renamed this.
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Selasa, 27 Juni 2017
June 28, 1953: Workers assemble first Corvette in Flint, Michigan
On this day in 1953, workers at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Michigan, assemble the first Corvette, a two-seater sports car that would become an American icon. The first completed production car rolled off the assembly line two days later, one of just 300 Corvettes made that year.
The idea for the Corvette originated with General Motors’ pioneering designer Harley J. Earl, who in 1951 began developing plans for a low-cost American sports car that...
Daily Quiz for June 28, 2017
This was the first American dog breed recognized by the American Kennel Club.
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Aviation History Book Review: The Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles A. Lindbergh More than eight decades have passed since Charles Lindbergh earned international fame for flying a single-engine plane solo from New York to Paris. He agreed to a book about his 1927 flight titled We, presuming that it would be written in the third person after …
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Aviation History Book Review: Fighter Group
Fighter Group: The 352nd “Blue-Nosed Bastards” in World War II by Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jay A. Stout, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pa., 2012, $28.95. When he came upon an Arado Ar-234 over Remagen Bridge on March 14, 1945, P-51 pilot Don Bryan already had a history with the German jet bomber. He’d previously encountered Ar-234s three …
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Aviation History Book Review: A Higher Call
A Higher Call: An Inspirational True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the WarTorn Skies of WWII by Adam Makos with Larry Alexander, Berkley-Caliber, New York, N.Y., 2012, $26.95 From aviation’s formative years there has always been a feeling of fraternity among aviators. It manifested itself in a form of mutual chivalry during World War …
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Aviation History Book Review: X-Planes of Europe
X-Planes of Europe: Secret Research Aircraft from the Golden Age 1946-1974 by Tony Buttler and Jean-Louis Delezenne, Specialty Press, North Branch, Minn., 2012, $56.95. It’s rare when a reference book can also be a guilty pleasure. X-Planes of Europe has all the facts and figures necessary for an expert to have at hand. But perhaps …
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Aviation History Book Review: The Star of Africa
The Star of Africa: The Story of Hans Marseille by Colin D. Heaton and Anne-Marie Lewis, Zenith Press, Minneapolis, Minn., 2012, $30. Though he died on September 30, 1942, the victim of a new Me-109G’s bad engine rather than an opponent, Hans-Joachim Marseille remained the highest-scoring German pilot to fly solely against Western adversaries. No …
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Fox Two!
The heatseeking AIM-9 Sidewinder went from a laboratory exercise to the preeminent air combat weapon of the jet age. The Cold War flared hot on August 23, 1958, when Communist China bombarded Matsu and Quemoy, islands of the Nationalist Republic of China (Taiwan). As Red Chinese and American warships faced off in the For- mosa …
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Front-Row Seat to History
A U.S. Army Chinook pilot looks back on her service in the First Gulf War. Captain Victoria Calhoun sat on the “ass end” of her CH-47D Chinook helicopter—parked nose to tail with Alpha Company’s other 15 chop- pers. The night was clear, the stars looked close enough to touch. As cold crept up the arms …
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July 2017 Table of Contents
The July 2017 issue features a cover story about Nazi German assassination squads known as Werewolves
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Flight of the River Phoenix
After a flying boat made a forced landing in Africa, a comedy of errors kept it jungle-bound for 10 long months. Hard to know which is worse: running out of gas over water in a landplane or doing it in a flying boat over a jungle, but in March 1939, crewmen of a four-engine Imperial …
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Recycling the Visionaries
NASA validates the genius of unsung pioneers from the past in some of its latest, most futuristic projects. The aviation industry has always attracted brilliant designers. While visionaries like Kelly Johnson, Ed Heinemann, Willis Hawkins and Leroy Grumman are well known, dozens of other once-prominent aeronautical engineers have been mostly forgotten—including some who developed very …
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The Lone Eagle’s War
Despite his early opposition to American involvement in World War II, Charles Lindbergh made a significant contribution to Allied victory. At 9:38 p.m. on Monday, April 24, 1944, a heavily loaded Douglas R4D took off from Naval Air Station North Island, in San Diego Harbor, climbing slowly into the western sky. The Navy and Marine …
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Remembering Wally
Before he became one of the Mercury Seven, irreverent astronaut Walter Schirra cut his teeth flying Navy fighters. Captain Walter M. Schirra Jr. was best known to the public as the fun-loving prankster of and when he died in May 2007 he The Right Stuff, was remembered as the only astronaut to fly in each …
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Sentinel Soars Once More
A father-and-son team spent eight years piecing together a ground-looped Stinson L-5E. “It was a great day. Just a beautiful morning. It had rained earlier but cleared by 10:30. No crosswind.”That’s how Marty Stickford Jr. matter-of-factly described the conditions on September 28, 2012, for first flight of his fully restored World War II– vintage Stinson …
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Flying Heel Lift
During the interwar years, a Midwestern podiatrist designed one of the most radical aircraft ever to take wing. By the 1920s, the basic configuration of the airplane as we know it today was pretty much settled: an elongated fuselage with vertical and horizontal control surfaces at the tail, and wings, with ailerons for lateral control …
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Aviation History Briefing- March 2013
F3F Biplane Barrels Back Grumman F3Fs would have been iconic fighters if only because of the vivid colors that graced every one— bands, chevrons, cowlings and panels of red, blue, green, white and yellow. Most definitely yellow. The colors were the U.S. Navy’s 1930s code to denote squadron, carrier affiliation, pilot rank, even an airplane’s …
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‘Badly Whipped He Will Be’
The Union found to its chagrin that John Pope and the war in the east were not a good fit pring 1862 had begun with such promise for the North. The “Young Napoleon,” Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, had methodically organized and, by April, launched an 80-mile thrust by the Army of the Potomac up …
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Interview with Brandon Bies: New Man at Manassas
Brandon Bies, the new superintendent of Manassas National Battlefield Park, began his career as an archaeologist 16 years ago at Monocacy National Battlefield. He moved on to increasing levels of responsibility at a number of NPS sites, including George Washington Memorial Parkway, Great Falls Park, and Arlington House, where he shepherded the $12.3 million donation …
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More Than Just a Prop
The versatile Skyraider flew missions that no jet could. Three and a half months after the first American combat troops, two battalions of Marines, waded ashore without resistance at Da Nang, U.S. Air Force jet pilots learned they wouldn’t have it so easy. On June 20, 1965, a McDonnell F-4C Phantom II was hit by …
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Senin, 26 Juni 2017
June 27, 1950: Truman orders U.S. forces to Korea
On June 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman announces that he is ordering U.S. air and naval forces to South Korea to aid the democratic nation in repulsing an invasion by communist North Korea. The United States was undertaking the major military operation, he explained, to enforce a United Nations resolution calling for an end to hostilities, and to stem the spread of communism in Asia. In addition to ordering U.S. forces to Korea, Truman also...
Daily Quiz for June 27, 2017
The Gerber Baby first appeared in this year.
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When and Why Did the U.S. Helmet Style Change?
When and Why Did the U.S. Helmet Style Change?
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Pacific War Action
Mission variety adds spice to both Pacific Carriers and Dogfight 1942. Fans of Pacific War air combat sims have plenty of options these days, as several titles are now available from Steam (steampowered.com), two of which are compared here. Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers ($30, http://ift.tt/2rVI4cA? lang_new=en) follows historical naval air battles between the United States …
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Aviation History Review: Test Pilot
Test Pilot by Jimmy Collins He never was as famous as Doolittle, the other test pilot Jimmy, or as well-known as the flashy air racers of the 1930s, the Roscoe Turners and Speed Holmans. Just a working stiff who got by while hopping from job to job, he instructed, flew charters, worked as what would …
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Aviation History DVD Review: Whittle
Whittle: The Jet Pioneer Shelter Island, 77 minutes plus extras, 2012, $24.98. In many ways this is the best and most comprehensive account of the turbojet aircraft engine’s development and the race with Germany to put the first jet warplanes in the air. Most of the narration is by Sir Frank Whittle himself, who appears …
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Aviation History Book Review: Operation Storm
Operation Storm: Japan’s Top Secret Submarines and Their Plan to Change the Course of World War II by John J. Geoghegan, Crown Publishing Group, New York, 2013, $39.95. Early in 1942, Warner Brothers released Across the Pacific, a film about a Japanese attempt to attack the Panama Canal using an airplane assembled at a secret …
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Aviation History Book Review: Jet Age Man
Jet Age Man: SAC B-47 and B-52 Operations in the Early Cold War by Lt. Col. Earl J. McGill, USAF (ret.), Helion & Company Ltd, UK, 2012, $49.95. This is a wonderful book for a wide variety of reasons, the first being the most important: Colonel Earl McGill, a veteran of three wars, portrays a …
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Aviation History Book Review: Day Fighters in Defence of the Reich
Day Fighters in Defence of the Reich: A War Diary, 1942-1945 by Donald Caldwell, Frontline Books, Barnsley, UK, 2012, $70. Donald Caldwell, co-author of The Luftwaffe Over Germany, once again tackles an immense, complex subject with his usual skill. Day Fighters in Defence of the Reich is an important resource for historians, but lay readers …
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Aviation History Book Review: Mission to Tokyo
Mission to Tokyo: The American Airmen Who Took the War to the Heart of Japan by Robert F. Dorr, Zenith Press, Minneapolis, Minn., 2012, $30. Mission to Tokyo is better than Bob Dorr’s previous Mission to Berlin, which is saying a great deal. Dorr patterned his new book’s basic structure—a minute-by-minute account of a tremendously …
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‘Patton in a P-51’
Don Blakeslee’s grit, guts and guidance helped make the “Fighting 4th” one of the finest combat air groups in Europe. Like his British and Commonwealth comrades in the Royal Air Force, American Don Blakeslee of No. 133 “Eagle” Squadron loved flying the Supermarine Spitfire. He had flown more than 100 sorties in the graceful fighter …
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Superforts vs. MiGs
Over Korea, prop-driven bombers tackled an unfamiliar mission and faced Soviet-built jets for the first time. The Cold War took on a new and more frightening face when the North Koreans invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. Five years after World War II, the U.S. military presence in the Pacific could best be characterized …
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Flight of the Wellesleys
In 1938 three RAF single-engine bombers set out on an adventure to Oz, hoping to break a nonstop distance record. Early on November 5, 1938, three Vickers Wellesley bombers of the Royal Air Force’s Long Range Development Unit (LRDU) departed from Ismailia, Egypt, bound for Darwin, Australia, more than 7,000 miles distant. Their objective was …
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‘Unstart’ Over Murmansk
All hell broke loose at 83,000 feet, just as a Soviet SAM site had the SR-71 Blackbird in its sights. Summer 1984: the coldest part of the Cold War’s final years, when both sides were doing their best to keep tabs on each other. For the crew of SR-71 Blackbird No. 61-7974, flying at 83,000 …
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Cat Tales: Consolidated’s PBY Flying Boat
Consolidated’s rugged PBY set a standard for flying boats and amphibians that will never be eclipsed. 1935 was a vintage year for first flights. It saw the arrival of three enormously capable, ahead-of-their-time airplanes that played a huge part in winning World War II: the Boeing B-17, Douglas DC-3/C-47 and Consolidated PBY flying boat, later …
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American Kamikaze
U.S. Navy pilot “Griff” Griffin survived intense combat in the Pacific War, then trained for missions that could only be described as suicidal. In October 1944, as USS bombers launched a second day of strikes on Japanese positions on Luzon, U.S. Navy Ensign Wallace S. “Griff” Griffin Lexington’s dive was at the controls of a …
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Spitfire From the Sands
Long buried on a Calais beach, a meticulously reconstructed Mark I is once again in flying trim. In the fall of 1980, a beachcomber walking the shoreline at Calais, on France’s northern coast, spotted something unusual protruding from the wet sand. At first glance it appeared to be a collection of corroded alloy parts, and …
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Pioneering Convertiplane
Gerard Herrick tried to have the best of both worlds—fixed-wing and rotary-wing—with his HV-2A. The concept of rotary-winged aircraft goes all the way back—on paper, at least—to Leonardo da Vinci, but even after the Wright brothers achieved controlled flight in 1903, rotary-winged flight remained elusive. In 1919 Spanish inventor Juan de la Cierva came up …
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Aviation History Briefing- May 2013
Return of the Avenger Largely unnoticed among restorations of more glamorous fighters, the waddling, two-story-high Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber has become a favorite warbird survivor. Why? Because hundreds of Avengers lived on as firebombers, thanks to a cavernous torpedo/bomb bay that could easily be filled with a borate tank, and some of them continued flying …
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Fly the Swiss Alps
A new German sim picks up where Microsoft left off. Microsoft quickly gave up on its Flight approach to flight simulations (see the July 2012 “Airware”). It’s product, a more casual clear that Bill Gates has bigger fish to fry in his push to maintain relevance in the competitive landscape of consumer technology. In 1981 …
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Aviation History Book Review: The Wind and Beyond
The Wind and Beyond: Theodore von Karman, Pioneer in Aviation and Pathfinder in Space by Theodore von Karman with Lee Edson Brilliant aerodynamicist Theodore von Karman set out to write his autobiography late in life, with the help of science journalist Lee Edson. When von Karman died in 1963 at age 81, the manuscript was …
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Aviation History Book Review: British Experimental Combat Aircraft of World War II
British Experimental Combat Aircraft of World War II: Prototypes, Research Aircraft and Failed Production Designs by Tony Buttler, Hikoki Publications, Manchester, UK, 2012, $56.95. When Lord Beaverbrook became British minister of aircraft production in May 1940, World War II was going very badly for Britain. Consequently, one of his first acts was to restrict aircraft …
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Aviation History Book Review: Naval Aviation in the Korean War
Naval Aviation in the Korean War: Aircraft, Ships and Men By Warren Thompson, Pen & Sword, South Yorkshire, UK, 2012, $50. Thank goodness for books like this that reduce the extent to which the Korean War has become a forgotten conflict. Prolific author Warren Thompson takes us through the war from its dark early days …
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Aviation History Book Review: On a Steel Horse I Ride
On a Steel Horse I Ride: A History of the MH-53 Pave Low Helicopters in War and Peace by Darrel D. Whitcomb, Air University Press, Montgomery, Ala., 2012, $81, free PDF download available at aupress.au.af.mil. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that On a Steel Horse I Ride is worthy of a Pulitzer …
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The Wee Bee
In the late 1940s, a group of moonlighting engineers set out to build the world’s smallest piloted airplane. People have been fascinated with giant airplanes throughout aviation history, naturally focusing on such standouts as Sikorsky’s Ilya Muromets, the World War I Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, the Hughes Hercules flying boat, the Convair XC-99 and the current champion, …
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Giving the Machine Guns Wings
Air combat came of age during World War I with the invention of devices that allowed fighter pilots to “point and shoot”. On April 1, 1915, Roland Garros took off in a Morane- Saulnier L from an airfield in northern France, planning to play an April Fool’s Day trick on the Germans. The Frenchman soon …
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Around Latin America in 133 Days
In 1926 a crack team of U.S. Army airmen set out in amphibious biplanes on a 22,000-mile marathon flight to 23 countries. The Four Loening OA-1A amphibians had just flown over the Andes from Chile on February 26, 1927, arriving in Buenos Aires, Argentina. En route to nearby Palomar Field, a crewman of the OA-1A …
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The Luftwaffe’s Wooden Wonder
Had it been produced in greater numbers, Heinkel’s jet-powered He-162 could have helped the Germans prolong World War II. By the summer of 1944, as the U.S. Army Air Forces’ massive daylight bombing campaign decimated the Third Reich’s war industry, the Luftwaffe was but a shadow of its former self. Despite the impressive combat record …
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18 Downed in a Day
Luftwaffe ace Bully Lang had several claims to fame in the course of his short, violent career. For an air arm that joined its nation in ultimate defeat in World War II, the Luftwaffe left a remarkable legacy of military aviation records, starting with the highest-scoring ace of all time, Erich Hartmann with 352 victories, …
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Desert Rat Reborn
A rare B-17E is slowly being brought back to life in an Illinois pole barn. When word came in June 2011 that Liberty Belle, one of the few still flyable Boeing B-17s, had burned after making an emergency landing in a cornfield near Aurora, Illinois, a sense of sadness and loss spread far beyond the …
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Beechcraft’s Bulldog
Denied its chance for glory, the pugnacious A17FS languished as a “hangar queen” for much of its brief life. Racing had always been in Walter Herschel Beech’s blood. He was an incurable disciple of speed, that indispensable aeronautical asset his friend Clyde V. Cessna had once proclaimed was “the only reason for flying.” Of all …
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Aviation History Briefing- July 2013
Duck Hunt in Greenland On November 29, 1942, a U.S. Coast Guard Grumman J2F-4 Duck crashed in bad weather on the Greenland ice cap, killing its pilot and radio operator as well as a USAAF B-17 crewman who was a passenger. The Duck had been involved in a complex, multi-service, air and ground attempt to …
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Minggu, 25 Juni 2017
June 26, 1948: U.S. begins Berlin Airlift
On this day in 1948, U.S. and British pilots begin delivering food and supplies by airplane to Berlin after the city is isolated by a Soviet Union blockade.
When World War II ended in 1945, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though located within the Soviet zone of occupation, was also split into four sectors, with the Allies taking the western part of the city and the Soviets...
Daily Quiz for June 26, 2017
Lee Harvey Oswald, the Kennedy assassin, served in this branch of the military.
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Sabtu, 24 Juni 2017
June 25, 1876: Battle of Little Bighorn
On this day in 1876, Native American forces led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in a bloody battle near southern Montana’s Little Bighorn River.
Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, leaders of the Sioux tribe on the Great Plains, strongly resisted the mid-19th-century efforts of the U.S. government to confine their people to reservations. In 1875, after gold was discovered...
Daily Quiz for June 25, 2017
The Dow Jones stock index closed above 5,000 for the first time in this year.
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Building Legends: North American F-86 Sabre and GE J47 Engine
The March 2017 issue of Aviation History magazines tells the tale of two aviation icons, North American’s F-86 Sabre, chasing North Korean MiG-15s over the Yalu, and the General Electric J47 turbojet engine that powered the legendary fighter. The Academy F-86F-30 kit, boasting a complete J47 engine that can be displayed separately, allows you to …
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Jumat, 23 Juni 2017
June 24, 1997: U.S. Air Force reports on Roswell
On this day in 1997, U.S. Air Force officials release a 231-page report dismissing long-standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico, almost exactly 50 years earlier.
Public interest in Unidentified Flying Objects, or UFOs, began to flourish in the 1940s, when developments in space travel and the dawn of the atomic age caused many Americans to turn their attention to the skies. The town of Roswell, located near the Pecos River...
Daily Quiz for June 24, 2017
The first woman US Senator served this long.
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The Lindberghs’ Forgotten Flight to the Orient
In 1931 the celebrated aviator and his wife set out on an adventure across the Canadian north to chart a potential route for Pan Am passenger service. One long flight: no timeline, no start or finish, no diplomatic or commercial significance and no records to be sought. That was how Charles Lindbergh described the 1931 …
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Aviation History Review: World of Warplanes
A new free online multiplayer sim will soon offer a wild ride. While we typically review finished products in “Airware” rather than previews of releases still in development, I recently had a chance to explore the beta version of the new free-to-play online multiplayer game World of Warplanes, where virtual pilots face off in air …
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Aviation History Book Review: To War in a Stringbag
To War in a Stringbag by Commander Charles Lamb, Royal Navy, DSC, DSO To War in a Stringbag is the extraordinary autobiography of an extraordinary naval aviator, Commander Charles Lamb, who experienced combat from the first days of World War II until the final stages of the Pacific campaign. “Stringbag” was the nickname of …
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Aviation History Book Review: The Last Zero Fighter
The Last Zero Fighter: Firsthand Accounts from WWII Japanese Naval Pilots by Dan King, Pacific Press, Irvine, Calif., 2012, $24.95. This remarkable book resulted from a confluence of personal interests, work assignments, linguistic talent, excellent writing, dedicated research and varied experience with films and video games. Dan King, who is fluent in Japanese, interviewed almost …
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Aviation History Book Review: NO 60 SQN RFC/RAF
NO 60 SQN RFC/RAF by Alex Revell, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, England, 2011, $25.95. Among the last offerings in Osprey’s “Elite Aviation Units” series, pending further notice, No 60 Sqn RFC/RAF exemplifies how entertaining and informative unit histories can be. Dealing with an outfit that evolved from a mixed bag of Morane-Saulnier single-seat monoplane scouts and …
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Aviation History Book Review: Flying on Film
Flying on Film: A Century of Aviation in the Movies 1912-2012 by Mark Carlson, Bear Manor Media, Duncan, Okla., 2012, $24.95. Few of my articles have elicited more letters to the editor than “Top Ten Best and Worst Aviation Movies Ever Made” (see the March 2010 Aviation History, and letters in subsequent issues). Try as …
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Aviation History Book Review: Stukas Over Spain
Stukas Over Spain: Dive Bomber Aircraft and Units of the Legion Condor by Rafael A. Permuy and Lucas Molina, Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, Pa., 2013, $34.99. The Spanish Civil War saw a contingent of Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe, which came to be called the Condor Legion, providing air support to the Nationalist side—and taking advantage of the …
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Aviation History Book Review: American Military Transport Aircraft Since 1925
American Military Transport Aircraft Since 1925 by E.R. Johnson, drawings by Lloyd S. Jones, McFarland and Company, Jefferson, N.C., 2013, $45. Although military transports seldom generate the same degree of interest that books about fighters or even bombers do, this book should be an exception, for it covers more little-known types than any other on …
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Mystery Ship: September 2017
Can you identify this attack bomber? Click here for the answer.
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Last Shot of the Civil War Wounds One
The 6-pound round of Confederate solid shot rolled into the fire and exploded. Shrapnel flew throughout the room full of Federal soldiers. Miraculously, no one was killed. A few men incurred minor injuries, and one, Private Harry Chait of Detroit, received burns serious enough to require him to spend several days at Camp Davis Hospital. …
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Drones: The Hollywood Connection
Actor Reginald Denny was instrumental in launching the target drone, and his factory launched a new star. Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), better known as drones, have generated plenty of controversy in recent years. In addition to questions surrounding their employment in military strikes, the explosive growth of drones in hobbyist circles has forced the FAA to …
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Hallowed Ground | Bushy Run Battlefield, Pennsylvania
Following Britain’s 1763 victory in the French and Indian War, Crown authorities earned the ire of tribes previously allied with the French by allowing settlers to occupy Indian lands in violation of treaty terms. Assuming the British intended to drive them out or destroy them, many called for action. The frontier exploded into Pontiac’s War, …
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Kamis, 22 Juni 2017
June 23, 1992: Teflon Don sentenced to life
Mafia boss John Gotti, who was nicknamed the “Teflon Don” after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Moments after his sentence was read in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, hundreds of Gotti’s supporters stormed the building and overturned and smashed cars before being forced back by police reinforcements.
Gotti,...
Daily Quiz for June 23, 2017
This state was the first to approve the US Bill of Rights.
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Aviation History Book Review: Project Terminated
Project Terminated: Famous Military Aircraft Cancellations of the Cold War and What Might Have Been by Erik Simonsen, Crécy Publishing, Manchester, UK, 2013, $39.95. Any aviation devotee will be intrigued by aerospace professional Erik Simonsen’s analysis of why magnificent aircraft such as the North American XB-70, Avro CF-105 Arrow and British Aircraft Company TSR-2 were …
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Bertie Lee’s Final Flight
With two engines out and a fire in the bomb bay, the battered B-17’s odds of survival didn’t look good, but somehow the three remaining crewmen kept the shot-up bomber flying. “Brakes,”ordered First Lieutenant Edward S. Michael, pilot of the B-17G Bertie Lee. “Brakes set,” answered First Lieutenant Franklin Westberg, his copilot. Continuing down the …
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Deadly Duo: Sopwith Camel and Fokker Triplane
Two of the world’s most famous fighters—the Sopwith Camel and Fokker triplane—are arguably the most overrated. German Lieutenant Lothar von Richthofen, younger brother of Manfred, the celebrated “Red Baron,” peered over the cockpit of his Fokker spotting a mixed flight of British Sopwith F.1 Camel fighters and Bristol F.2b two-seaters soaring over the cratered battlefields …
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The Gardenville Project
The iconic bubble-canopy Bell 47, the first helicopter certified for civilian use, was born in an abandoned car dealership. Snowy Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie in upstate New York, might seem an unlikely place for cutting-edge developments in vertical flight during the 1940s. At the time, however, Buffalo already had a significant history …
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Short-Lived Glory: The Canberra WD932
English Electric Canberra WD932’s brief but distinguished service life ended in tragedy. Archival footage from the 1951 newsreel shows a sleek twin- engine jet being towed out of its hangar onto the runway of a remote Royal Air Force base in Northern Ireland. The British commentator intones: “Great hopes center on the Canberra, Britain’s first …
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Screaming Bird of Prey
Although obsolescent even before World War II began, the Ju-87 Stuka terrorized ground troops and found a late-war niche as a tank-buster. Never has a warplane so obsolete, vulnerable and technologically basic wrought so much damage to its enemies as did the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka. Even as Germany invaded Poland and triggered World War II, …
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Tuskegee Triple
Harry Stewart earned a Distinguished Flying Cross in his first dogfight as a Tuskegee Airman. Given the immense obstacles faced by black Americans who aspired to fly in World War II, obtaining the Army’s coveted silver wings at Tuskegee Army Airfield on June 27, 1944, was a remarkable accomplishment for Harry T. Stewart Jr. But …
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Treasure From the Raj
Discovered in an elephant barn in India, two World War I bombers have been brought back to life in the UK. In the 21st century, finding a long-undiscovered World War I airplane in a barn is more than a rarity; it’s a near impossibility. Thus when UK-based aircraft restorer Guy Black heard about two 1918 …
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Man-Carrying Kite
Sam Perkins set many records with his new invention, but when he tried to sell the military on it, they told him to go fly a kite. Samuel F. Perkins was only 27 in January 1911 when the called him “the greatest authority in the world on man-carrying kites.” Los Angeles Herald Eighteen months earlier …
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Aviation History Briefing- September 2013
Coast to Coast on Sun Power Imagine flying 900 miles at about 40 mph in a cockpit that has half the interior space of a Mini Cooper, with wings the span of a commercial jet providing lift. Now remove the gas tank, add 12,000 photovoltaic cells and a tail like a dragonfly’s, and you have …
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Aviation History Airware Review: Flight Sims for Your Phone
Take to the skies anywhere, anytime, with mobile apps in hand. The rise of smart phones gives gamers yet another way to soar virtually via flight simulations. This month we take look at three Android flight sims from the Google Play store (iPhone versions are also available), a sampling of the new mobile apps now …
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Aviation History Book Review: North to the Orient
North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh In July 1931, Charles and Anne Lindbergh set off on the adventure of a lifetime, an unofficial survey flight on the great-circle route from New York to points in the Far East. Unlike explorers of an earlier era who had pioneered trade routes to the Orient by …
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Aviation History Book Review: F3D Skyknight in Action
F3D Skyknight in Action by Alan C. Carey, Squadron/Signal, Carrollton, Texas, 2012, $18.95 softcover, $28.95 hardcover. Designed by a team led by Edward Heinemann at Douglas Aircraft, the F3D Skyknight was meant to be the U.S. Navy’s first carrier-based night fighter. It needed to be big, robust and a little ugly to accommodate the clunky …
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Aviation History Book Review: Spanish Republican Aces
Spanish Republican Aces by Rafael A. Permuy López, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2012, $22.95. Despite the Cold War, McCarthyism and the general disrepute into which communism has fallen in America, there remains a lingering fascination and sympathy with the Republican cause in Spain. That sympathy is undoubtedly reinforced by the fact that Fascist Italy and …
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Aviation History Book Review: Float Planes and Flying Boats
Float Planes and Flying Boats: The Coast Guard and Early Naval Aviation by Captain Robert B. Workman Jr., USCG (ret.), Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md., 2012, $41.95. The U.S. Coast Guard gets short shrift in most military histories, but in Float Planes and Flying Boats, Coast Guard aviation finally receives its due. Written by a …
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Aviation History Book Review: Secrets of the Spitfire
Secrets of the Spitfire: The Story of Beverley Shenstone, the Man Who Perfected the Elliptical Wing by Lance Cole, Pen and Sword Aviation, South Yorkshire, UK, 2012, $39.95. Reginald J. Mitchell will always be remembered as the mastermind behind the Supermarine Spitfire. But in Secrets of the Spitfire, Lance Cole focuses on the iconic fighter’s …
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Seven Down in Greenland
A forced landing on Greenland’s ice cap set in motion one of the most extensive—and costly—search-and-rescue operations ever mounted. It was called the Snowball Route—officially the North Atlantic Ferry Route— from Goose Bay, Labrador, to the one- way runway at Bluie West One on Greenland; then across to Keflavik, Iceland, to refuel again; on to …
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Blowup at the Covey Bomb Dump
The fireworks didn’t let up for 10 days during the Vietnam War’s most successful aerial interdiction effort against the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In the pitch-black early morning hours of December 19, 1970, a U.S. Air Force forward air controller—call-sign “Covey”— directed an attack against North Vietnamese trucks moving south on the Ho Chi Minh …
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Rabu, 21 Juni 2017
June 22, 1944: FDR signs G.I. Bill
On this day in 1944, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the G.I. Bill, an unprecedented act of legislation designed to compensate returning members of the armed services–known as G.I.s–for their efforts in World War II.
As the last of its sweeping New Deal reforms, Roosevelt’s administration created the G.I. Bill–officially the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944–hoping to avoid a relapse into the Great Depression after the war ended. FDR...
The Eagle of Lille
As a leader of Germany’s deadly “Fokker Scourge,” Max Immelmann almost single-handedly took on Britain’s Royal Flying Corps. It didn’t take long for Ensign Max Immelmann of the Imperial German Flying Corps, piloting unarmed two- seater reconnaissance planes over the Western Front, to learn that the enemy was shooting more than photographs. The Farman MF.11 …
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Daily Quiz for June 22, 2017
President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held their first summit in this city.
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Vanished!: What Happened to the Hawaii Clipper?
In the 75 years since the Hawaii Clipper disappeared, no one has figured out what happened to the flying boat and its crew. A few minutes before 6 a.m. on July 29, 1938, Pan American Airways Captain Leonard Terletzky taxied the Clipper out of Apra Harbor, Hawaii Guam. Terletzky was more than halfway through the …
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Mitchell’s Masterpiece
When the Spitfire entered squadron service 75 years ago, it was exactly the right airplane at the right time for Britain. But if not for the dedication of one man, it might never have been built The silver aircraft, displaying the familiar lines of history’s most legendary fighter, banked to land at the British colony …
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Soldier of a New Time
American volunteer pilot Ben Leider was a mercenary in name only during the Spanish Civil War. Although the U.S. was nominally neutral in the Spanish Civil War—which pitted Spain’s Nationalists, aided by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, against the Republicans, whose principal ally was the Soviet Union—the struggle attracted more than 2,800 American mercenaries eager …
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