Topic: Flying-Machines » Aircraft » Military Aircraft

Military Aircraft

Warplanes, including fighters, bombers, air tankers, surveillance aircraft and more
Results 101 - 120 of 330

History in Flight

Rare warbirds star in a California airshow.
May 11, 2010 | By Linda Shiner

Warfare at the speed of light: Boeing says detection to destruction happens in a matter of seconds.

How Things Work: Missile Killer

In this tables-turned scenario, the airplane shoots down the missile.
May 2010 | By Damond Benningfield

Ospreys line up on the camp’s runway (left), where several will undergo routine maintenance. The MV-22 has a mission-readiness rate of 80 percent.

Osprey at War

Can the MV-22 pass muster in Afghanistan?
May 2010 | By Ed Darack

<b><i>Writer and photographer Ed Darack</b></i> spent time in December 2009 with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261 (VMM-261) in southern Afghanistan. In addition to Darack’s story, “Osprey at War,” featured in our April / May issue, we offer a slideshow of images taking during his stay. <br><br>“The pilots put the tip lights on for safety during nighttime and at dawn and dusk,” says Darack. “They just started this one up—you can see the plume of white smoke.” <br><br>Many of the Osprey pilots used to fly the Boeing CH-46 Sea Knight, known colloquially to the Marines as the “Phrog.” “Basically, coming from the CH-46, I felt safe in the Phrog because it had two .50-caliber machine guns,” says Captain Chris Meixell of VMM-261, “but with this airframe, we have triple-redundant flight controls, and those controls are routed in different parts of the airframe. The engines are 46 feet apart, which decreases the chances of both of them getting shot out by enemy fire, and [the MV-22] can climb to 9,000 feet in airplane mode on one engine. The fuel system is a suction type system, and if you take a round, it is just going to suck air, it is not going to spray fuel. The greatest safety advantage is the performance of the aircraft itself, which allows us to climb quickly out of small-arms and shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile range.”

A Tiltrotor Squadron in Afghanistan

Scenes of a Marine unit flying the incredible, versatile Osprey.
March 15, 2010 | By Rebecca Maksel

Edwards Air Force Base

Above and Beyond: The Unhappy Bottom Riding Club

March 2010 | By Norvin C. Evans

Vietnam War, the OV-10 Bronco

Legends of Vietnam: Bronco's Tale

One of the most versatile aircraft of the Vietnam War appears on the verge of a comeback.
March 2010 | By William E. Burrows

Map from the FAA

Don't Cross That Line

Would a fighter pilot shoot down a private airplane?
March 2010 | By Craig Mellow

Kelly Johnson

Head Skunk

Kelly Johnson was a giant in aircraft design. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, we find out how his legend grew.
March 2010 | By Peter Garrison

Malaysian pilot the layout of the Hornet instrument pane

Hornet v. MiG

U.S. Marine aviators to Malaysian MiG pilots: Show us what you got.
March 2010 | By Ed Darack

An F-15 Eagle heads out to the range over Nellis Air Force Base during a Red Flag exercise in 2006.

Combat U.

Learning the art of the dogfight at Red Flag.
February 04, 2010 | By Randy Gordon

Lasers High and Low

Boeing has released this video of a test conducted at the Army's Redstone Arsenal in Alabama last September, during which the ground-based Laser Avenger weapon blew up 50 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) of the kind used against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mounted on an armored vehicle,...
January 25, 2010 | By Tony Reichhardt

<b><i>Visit the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum,</b></i> and you’re guaranteed to see historic aircraft and spacecraft, including the original Wright 1903 Flyer, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress <i>Enola Gay</i>, the SR-71 <i>Blackbird</i>, and the Space Shuttle <i>Enterprise</i>. The Museum also boasts a multitude of artifacts large and small: engines, propellers, aerial cameras, more than 2 million technical drawings—even popular culture items such as Charles Lindbergh-emblazoned underwear. <br><br>But what people may <i>not</i> know is that part of the Museum’s mission is to tell the story of aerospace through art; during the Museum’s creation, Congress mandated that one gallery be specifically dedicated to aerospace artwork. <br><br>Which brings us to an important donation. Michael and Maureen Harrigan, of Kendall, New York, recently gave the Museum 42 prints by renowned aviation artist Robert Taylor, a collection acquired over some 20 years. <br><br>When Mike Harrigan’s firm, the Harrigan Brady Paper Company, moved to its new location in 1988, Harrigan asked his (mostly female) staff for suggestions on how to fill the empty wall space. “They wanted paintings of daisies,” he said, somewhat mournfully. Because of the company’s proximity to the Greater Rochester International Airport, Harrigan suggested an alternative: pictures of airplanes. <br><br>As senior aeronautics curator Tom Crouch reported in our March 2010 issue, the first Robert Taylor print Harrigan acquired was titled <i>Home at Dusk</i>. (The print depicts four P-51 Mustangs crossing the East Anglican coast on their way back to base.) Harrigan’s interest in aviation art grew from there; he eventually collected so many Robert Taylor’s prints that his staff took to calling him “Imelda Marcos.” When he ran out of available wall space, Harrigan wasn’t deterred in the least—he hung the remaining prints in the men’s room. <br><br>Harrigan’s art collection began to gain a bit of fame in the Rochester area, with customers, postal carriers, and the random citizen showing up during work hours asking for a tour. Visitors were so frequent that “the girls suggested I start charging a fee, and we could have a party with the money,” joked Harrigan. <br><br>As Tom Crouch wrote, “Someone once asked Mike if he would ever part with the collection. His answer: ‘Well,’ he said, ‘if the Smithsonian walked in, I’d have to consider it.’ To make a long story short, we did, and he did.” <br><br>When the Smithsonian crew came to package the collection for transport, Harrigan had one request: to wrap up <i>Home at Dusk</i> first, and to box up the final print he acquired, last. “There was a tear in my eye,” Harrigan said, as he watched the crew package his collection, piece by piece. “All of the girls were crying. They knew how much those prints meant to me.” <br><br>The Harrigans’ generous donation can currently be seen, in part, on the lower level of the Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Once the new restoration wing is completed, in 2011, the collection will be displayed in its entirety. Click on the images at right to take a closer look at a few prints from the collection. <br><br>The painting shown here, <i>Morning Thunder</i>, includes a note from the artist, Robert Taylor: “Sunday, December 7, 1941 <br><br>Having taken six torpedo hits and two bomb strikes in the first-wave attack on Battleship Row, the <i>West Virginia</i> is ablaze, her bows already low in the water and decks awash. Ignoring the risk, crews push the Navy tug <i>Hoga</i> alongside with fire-fighting equipment and to pick up survivors. Overhead, Japanese Zeros swoop through the smoke, aiming the second-wave attack at installations on Pearl Harbor’s Ford Island, to complete one of history’s most devastating unprovoked declarations of war.”

The Gift of Art

A recent donation by Michael and Maureen Harrigan helps the Museum fulfill its mission.
January 21, 2010 | By Rebecca Maksel

Senator George Gunther with the Corsair, the state aircraft.

Restoration: Connecticut's State Warbird

What World War II fighter was a product of the Nutmeg State?
January 2010 | By James Wynbrandt

The Douglas marketing team used this model to present the 1211-J to the U.S. Air Force in 1950

The Do-Everything Bomber

With its bid to replace the Convair B-36 bomber, did Douglas promise too much?
January 2010 | By John Aldaz and Sir George Cox

Canadian lads, eager for a brush with World War II glory

Ode on a Canadian Warbird

The author remembers childhood, with round engines.
January 2010 | By Bruce McCall

A-37A entered combat in South Vietnam

Legends of Vietnam: Super Tweet

Yeah. The A-37 was small. So was Napoleon.
January 2010 | By Stephen Joiner

The author with his anti-sub Lockheed Orion

Above and Beyond: Adventures in the South China Sea

January 2010 | By Tracy Wilkinson

John Magda (mounting his Blue Angel Panther in 1950)

Restoration: Kentucky Panther

Grumman's first jet honors a son of the Bluegrass State.
January 2010 | By Barrett Tillman

The authors daughter, spellbound by a Hercules C-130

Flights and Fancy: Like Father, Like Daughter

January 2010 | By David Unekis

A segmented 76-foot airship during flight testing over Stuttgart, Germany.

Sky Snake

Flexible blimps are bending the rules on UAV design.
December 18, 2009 | By Michael Klesius


« Previous 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next »

Advertisement


Advertisement