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…
The X-15 was an experimental Air Force rocket plane for the edge of space
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…
This WWII RAF veteran got his overdue medals for his 100th birthday
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…
This Cuban pilot defected to the US then went back to rescue his family
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…
This Air Force pilot scored the first and only air-to-space kill
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,…
This aerial dogfight was like a life-sized version of a bee swarm
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…
This Air Force pilot took on an entire anti-aircraft complex – and won
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…
6 differences between the Air Force F-16 and the Navy’s F-18
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…
How Naval Aviator Charles Klusmann escaped a vicious POW camp
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…
This friendly fire incident hamstrung the P-38
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 …