The video below captures the moment that a U.S. Air Force fighter safely shot down a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon on February 4th. Continue reading
Category Archives: Video
Curtiss XP-55 Ascender – WW2 Backwards Super Fighter
The Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender (company designation CW-24) is a 1940s United States prototype fighter aircraft built by Curtiss-Wright. Along with the Vultee XP-54 and Northrop XP-56, it resulted from United States Army Air Corps proposal R-40C issued on 27 November 1939 for aircraft with improved performance, armament, and pilot visibility over existing fighters; it specifically allowed for unconventional aircraft designs. Continue reading
Curtiss A-12 Shrike – Innovative for Five Minutes, Obsolete Forever
The Curtiss A-12 Shrike was the United States Army Air Corps’ second monoplane ground-attack aircraft, and its main attack aircraft through most of the 1930s. It was based on the A-8, but had a radial engine instead of the A-8’s inline, water-cooled engine, as well as other changes. Continue reading
Blohm & Voss BV 138 – Three Engines, One Unique Design
The Blohm & Voss BV 138 Seedrache (Sea Dragon), but nicknamed Der Fliegende Holzschuh (‘flying clog’, from the side-view shape of its fuselage, as well as a play on the title of the Wagner opera ‘Der Fliegende Hollander’ or ‘The Flying Dutchman’) was a World War II German trimotor flying boat that served as the Luftwaffe’s main seaborne long-range maritime patrol and naval reconnaissance aircraft. Continue reading
The Best American Plane to Never Fight – XB-51
The Martin XB-51 was a colossal bomber aircraft built in the late 1940s that exceeded all expectations and was probably the finest bomber that never went to battle. The XB-51’s lifespan was too brief to be awarded an official nickname. Still, its unusually prolonged shape granted it the moniker of “The Flying Cigar.” Continue reading
Martin 262 Convoy Fighter – US Navy VTOL Turboprop from 1950
The Martin 262 Convoy Fighter was to be the cornerstone of the US Navy- this defensive fighter has propellers moving at supersonic speeds and can take off and land vertically. It was supposed to begin an era of the helicopter-like plane, but this never happened. Continue reading
Martin-Baker MB.5 – Designed to Replace the Spitfire
The British Martin-Baker MB 5 was the ultimate development of a series of prototype fighter aircraft built during the Second World War. Neither the MB 5 nor its predecessors ever entered production, despite what test pilots described as excellent performance. Continue reading
Sukhoi Su 47 – Russia’s Plane With Backward Wings
The Sukhoi Su-47 Berkut (Russian: Сухой Су-47 Беркут, lit. ’Golden Eagle’) (NATO reporting name Firkin), also designated S-32 and S-37 (not to be confused with the twin-engined delta canard design offered by Sukhoi in the early 1990s under the designation Su-37) during initial development, was an experimental supersonic jet fighter developed by the JSC Sukhoi Company. Continue reading