The Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne was poised to be the most advanced thing. It was a revolutionary attack helicopter killed by politics. Background The AH-56 Cheyenne was the end result of a long line of development with numerous precursor technologies and prototypes all playing a contributing role to this monumental aircraft. With all the resources Lockheed […] More
The North American X-15 rocket-powered aircraft project was widely known for bridging the gap between human-crewed flight within and beyond the bounds of the Earth. Its most recognizable mission was flight number 90, a test flight done by the Air force and NASA. A Hypersonic Rocket Plane In the 1950’s NASA’s predecessor, the national advisory […] More
X-51 Waverider The Waverider is Boeing’s unmanned experimental scramjet aircraft designed to reach hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 at 70,000 feet. It measured 25 feet in length and was powered by a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne SJY61 scramjet engine and an MHM-140 ATACMS rocket booster. The aircraft performed its first successful flight test on May […] More
In 1967, during one of the tensest periods of the Cold War, a US satellite captured images of a giant object that was approximately 325 feet long. Initially, the US thought it was some kind of rig or platform, but further surveillance shows that it was a Soviet aircraft unlike anything seen in the West. […] More
It was the summer of 1914 and Europe was deeply engulfed in war. The German Empire, with a secure foothold on the Belgian coast, could easily deploy U-boats and destroyers across the English channel bypassing the Royal Grand Fleet in the North Sea. After years of debate, the Royal Navy then decided to launch an […] More
Why was the Zumwalt Destroyer program canceled? We dig deeper into what led to the cost overruns causing the US government to cancel it. History Zumwalt was envisioned in 1994 as a part of the SC-21rd program with a mission to design 21st-century land attack ships for the US Navy. The Zumwalt class was supposed […] More
On June 13, 1944, an anti-aircraft battery in the district of Woolwich was caught by surprise when the world’s first-ever cruise missile, the V-1 Flying Bomb, struck Grove Road just 2 kilometers from the tower of London. It was a weapon like no other – flying to its target with no pilot at the controls, […] More
The USS North Carolina was the lead ship of the North Carolina-class battleships. She was also the first American battleship that was newly constructed to enter service during World War II. Here are ten interesting facts about the USS North Carolina- the US Navy’s first fast battleship: 1. She was one of the most highly […] More
The Soviet Union’s Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 is the Soviet Union’s single-seat, single-engine jet fighter, and one of the most feared high-performance weapons of the 20th century. Here are ten interesting facts about this stellar aircraft: 1. It was the first of its kind to have swept wings and reach high transonic speeds With MiG-15s flying in […] More
The Tupolev TB-3 is a four-engine Soviet heavy developed in the late 1920s. It was the first all-metal, four-engine, monoplane bomber to enter service, and transformed the Soviet Air Force’s capabilities. Design Origins The TB-3’s story begins in 1925 with the Soviet Air Force. During the 1920s, the Soviet Union didn’t have the required facilities […] More
On November 26, 1941, a Japanese attack fleet of six aircraft carriers, two battleships, and hundreds of aircraft departed from Japan. They planned a surprise attack on the US Pacific fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. But why did they want to attack in the first place, and why did a miscalculation lead to their […] More
Each time the United Kingdom’s Bomber Command was given challenging missions, the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber was always their go-to plane. Equipped with four Rolls-Royce engines with an impressive top speed of 187 miles per hour, it has an excellent lifting capacity and an unobstructed bomb bay. Its standard load of up to 18,000 pounds […] More
