Did you ever wonder which British bomber was the deadliest aircraft of WWII? Not the deadliest for the enemy – but for the crew. So, in which British aircraft did the most men from RAF Bomber Command die? Fairey Battle Of the crew who operated the Battle, 280 crewmen would perish. This is a relatively […] More
AP-63 In 1951, the design team at Republic Aviation began plans for a new supersonic single-seater tactical aircraft. It was to be supervised by Alexander Kartveli, who once worked on the development of the P-47 Thunderbolt, F-84 Thunderjet, and the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak. This new project, given the name “AP (Advanced Project) 63”, was expected […] More
Yakovlev VVP-6 With six giant rotors, this giant Russian helicopter would have been the biggest helicopter on the planet. It was devised to lift SAM missiles to remote parts of the forest to shoot down American spy planes while fully capable of vertical take-offs and landings. Its box-like design could have measured 49m long, with […] More
The Helldiver is perhaps the best example of a potentially excellent aircraft design that was ruined by its uncompromising requirements. Here’s how: Origins Early in 1938, the US issued requirements for a diver that would be: Powered by the 1500 hp 14-cylinder Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone, Carry a greater fuel load than the SBD Dauntless […] More
The US isn’t the only nation in the world with several top-secret aerospace projects. In fact, some of the wildest ideas came from the other side of the Iron Curtain. Here are three examples of the Soviet Union’s black projects: M-25 Sonic Boom Designed to fly low and fast over a battlefield, the M-25 was […] More
