America’s last WWII triple ace was promoted to brigadier general
Col. Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson served in the U.S. Army Air Force and the U.S. Air Force from 1942 to 1972. He is America’s oldest and highest-scoring fighter ace, with…
Col. Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson served in the U.S. Army Air Force and the U.S. Air Force from 1942 to 1972. He is America’s oldest and highest-scoring fighter ace, with…
In October 1967, test pilot and soon-to-be astronaut William J. Knight was flying at an altitude of more than 102,000 feet when he accelerated his aircraft to Mach 6.7. That…
In 1944, 18-year-old Kaz Yajima was eager to join the British military and serve his country before WWII ended. He joined the RAF and was posted to South Africa for…
Being a pilot affords people under communist rule a unique escape opportunity. Flying an aircraft can make the journey to asylum in a Western country easier than evading ground patrols…
Confirmed kills distinguish accomplished military pilots from the rest of the pack. They are recorded on an aircraft with the enemy’s flag or the outline of the vehicle destroyed. However,…
Israeli Col. Giora Epstein, one of the world’s greatest fighter aces of the jet era, was leading a flight of four planes during the Yom Kippur War when his team spotted two Egyptian MiG-21s. Epstein pursued the pair and quickly shot down the trail…
In March 1967, U.S. Air Force Capt. Merlyn Dethlefsen and three other F-105 Thunderchief pilots were tasked to fly 50 miles north of Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam. Once there, they were to destroy the Thai Nguyen Steel Works.
The wo…
The F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F/A-18 Hornet are both “lightweight” fighters. Each was intended to complement a larger, heavier fighter (the F-15 for the F-16, the F-14 for the F/A-18). But they also have some big differences. Let’s look over s…
Charles Frederic Klusmann was a Naval Aviator born on September 7, 1933, in San Diego, California. He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve on February 23, 1952, and began active service…
The P-38 Lighting was a superb long-range fighter in all theaters of the war. The plane is best known for the “Zero Dark Thirty” operation of the Pacific Theater – the shoot-down of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto by Capt. Tom Lanphier.
But …