Police helicopters and ambulances at the Pentagon, September 11, 2001.

9/11: The Saga of the Skies

Chaos and control over Washington, while the Pentagon burned.

The FAA classifies the Osprey as a "powered lift" aircraft-neither airplane nor rotorcraft.

Tilters

You might say that Osprey pilots are neither fish nor fowl.

In a typical two-ship formation, B-1Bs fly a 1998 training mission near Meteor Crater in Arizona, one of the few holes in the ground bigger than a B-1 could make.

The Bone is Back

Too trouble-prone for nuclear alert and sidelined in the first Gulf War, the B-1 is today the busiest bomber in the fleet.

Staff Sergeant Robin Walker (left) reports no foreign objects in the inlets to Staff Sergeant Greg Slavik piror to takeoff from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

Unconventional Weapon

What we learned about stealth technology from the combat career of the F-117.

The Quiet One had a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera on its belly that helped the pilots navigate at night.

Air America's Black Helicopter

The secret aircraft that helped the CIA tap phones in North Vietnam.

From A UH-1N Huey helicopter, Corporal Andy Vistrand, a "Gunrunner" in Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 269, scans the countryside of Anbar province from behind a .50-caliber machine gun.

Air War Iraq

From Al Asad Air Base, portraits of U.S. aircraft and crews in the fourth year of fighting.

Jugs in fearsome formation.

Cold Front

Meet the men who kept the Thunderbolts flying.

The three X-15s shared a hangar with lifting bodies (first three on left) at Edwards Air Force Base during the golden age of flight research.

The Real X-Men

Life came at you fast when you flew the X-15.

A Hawker Hurricane Mark IIC is on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museums Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia.

Hurricane Walkaround

Aviation historian Ron Dick takes a closer look at an old warbird.

Putting away a ScanEagle after a flight over the Al Anbar Province of Iraq in August 2006.

Flocking ScanEagles

When it comes to operating UAVs, six heads aren't better than one.

William Holloman during his World War II flying days.

Tuskegee Memories

This World War II veteran loved flying all airplanes, but especially the Mustang.

Interview: Dick Anderegg

A talk with the Air Force historian.

Above & Beyond: Mission Unaccomplished

Memorable flights, and other adventures.

A Short (Very Short) History of the F-19

What airplane came in a little box and never flew?

The B-17 Memphis Belle.

WWII: A Reader's Guide to the Air War

Our pick of the best books and memoirs on World War II aviation.

The Learfan combined all-composite structure with two turboshaft engines driving a single pusher prop through a gearbox.

Beached Starship

Some say that Beech and Raytheon's turboprop failed because it tried too much, too soon.

ShinMaywa’s US-1A, cleansed of the corrosive sea after every mission, continues an ancestral line of flying boats.

Giant Amphibian

Japan has one godzilla of a seaplane.

INA the Macon Belle will roar through the skies over Columbus, Ohio, along with dozens of other Mustang beauties.

Calling All Mustangs

This September a super-size squadron of P-51s will relive the legend.

Above & Beyond: Milk Run

How a milk run from an aircraft carrier nearly killed me.

A tour of Eighth Air Force history wouldnt be complete without a visit to Duxford, which has an operational control tower and Sally B, a still-flying B-17.

In the Footsteps of the Mighty Eighth

A writer searches southern England for traces of a legendary World War II air force.

The last U.S. F-4s were retired in 1996 (a U.S. Air Force RF-4C during the Vietnam War); about 800 still fly worldwide.

Moments & Milestones: The Phantom at 50

Producted in Cooperation with the National Aeronautic Association.

Aluminum Overcast.

Airplanes of the Eighth

Where to see B-17s and Mustangs for yourself.

Steam-powered catapults, expensive and difficult to maintain, are operating near their limits and will not be able to accommodate heavier aircraft planned for the future.

How Things Work: Electromagnetic Catapults

From zero to 150 in less than a second.

Wildcats were dispatched in divisions of four to protect their aircraft carriers and other ships from Japans medium bombers. Southerland led a division from the USS Saratoga on August 7, 1942, and was joined by another. Of the eight pilots, five returned.

Mystery on Guadalcanal

In the wreckage of a Wildcat lay clues to what happened in a famous World War II dogfight.

A KC-135 Stratotanker refuels an F-16 Fighting Falcon in the skies over New Mexico. (DoD photo by Senior Airman Jeffrey Allen, USAF)

Gas Guzzlers

The Air Force looks for economy at the pump.

X-35B short-takeoff and vertical-landing (STOVL) aircraft displayed at the National Air and Space Museums Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

The X-35 on Display

The fighter of the future comes to the Hazy Center.

The X-35A, built to validate propulsion and flying qualities for the Joint Strike Fighter, takes flight in October 2000.

Weight Watchers

How a team of engineers and a crash diet saved the Joint Strike Fighter.

Arthur Tomassetti is go for Mission X in the X-35B.

Above & Beyond: Mission X

Debuting in 1915, the petite French Nieuport 11 fighter was based on the design of several pre-war racers.

The Great Warplanes

Portraits of military aviation's first fleet.

VERA, in her original glory, leads a group of Me 262s, captured by the U.S. Air Force, as they taxi for takeoff from the airfield at Lechfeld, Germany, in 1945.

Stormbird

Like a whale in a tanning salon, a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy bakes under a <br />bank of heat lamps in the main chamber, which was enlarged in 1968 to accommodate the Air Forces biggest cargo airplane.

Torture Chamber

Because airplanes must fly in the real world, the Air Force built a fake one.

A fleet of PV-1s race over the Bering Sea toward Japan. Jettisoning into the water meant death in 10 minutes. On land, it took longer.

Fire and Ice

A wrecked bomber in Russia memorializes a World War II battle for the North Pacific.

His staff shot men and machines—here, a ships crew watching a TBF hoisted aboard.

Steichen's Navy

With museum-quality photographs, Edward Steichen showed the world what it was like to be a sailor at war.

Moments & Milestones: Low and Dark

Midnight Raiders

How zeppelin bombers during World War I terrorized the British-and their own German crews.

An Iraqi Air Force C-130 gets a thumbs-up from a U.S. Air Force crew chief during a July 2005 mission from Ali Air Base.

Iraq Air Force One

New pilots, new government.

The SBX, shown here on a cargo vessel in Texas, practiced two days of "weather avoidance" when Hurricane Emily arrived in the Gulf of Mexico during 2005 testing. The range of the array inside the dome is limited only by Earths curvature.

How Things Work: Phased-Array Radar

It takes a big eye to see a missile coming.

Cold war B-52s flew an icy northern route on alert for a Soviet missile strike.

A Hard Day's Night

Cold war B-52s flew an icy northern route on alert for a Soviet missile strike.

DoD photo by Master Sgt. Keith Baxter, USAF

The Raptor Rocks

F-22s treat airshow fans to a maneuverability demo.

Tomcat Photo Gallery

Reader Scrapbook

Snapshot

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July 2008

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Air & Space Interview

Brian Norris

A talk with an airshow operations coordinator.

New Worlds

An Eye on Mercury

MESSENGER's pictures were taken by a very used camera.