The Aviation Factfile - Aircraft of World War II

On the eve of World War II in Europe in September 1939, the air forces of the world were largely equipped with biplane fighters, bombers and transport aircraft. By war's end six years later, biplanes were obsolete and five nations had flown jet or rocket-powered warplanes. The Munich Crisis in 1938 sounded the last warning before war, and gave all nations time to at least begin to rearm with modern equipment. Nonetheless, biplanes such as the Gloster Gladiator and Fiat CR.42 met in combat as late as 1942. Britain's Royal Air Force moved into the modern era just in time. The early Spitfire and Hurricane were equal to or belter than Germany's fighters, bombers and dive-bombers, and were better employed tactically. Improved versions of the Spitfire jousted with new Messerschmitt Bf 109s in a seesaw Struggle chat tested until 1945. The Typhoon and Tempesc lighters became most effective in the low-level ground-attack role. Britain's bombers were more of a mixed bunch. After low-level daylight attacks proved ineffective and cosily to squadrons of Blenheims, Wellingtons. Whitleys and others, Bomber Command switched to four-engined night bombers - the Stirling, Halifax and Lancaster - laying Germany's cities to waste.

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X-Planes and Prototypes - From Nazi Secret Weapons To The Warplanes Of The Future

X stands for the unknown in mathematics and physics. An 'X-Plane' is an experimental or research aircraft designed to explore the boundaries of aeronautical science, and the term has become shorthand for any development model, research aircraft or technology demonstrator. Fuelled by the desire to conquer the unknown, the aviation industry has created some of the most remarkable and spectacular aircraft ever to fly, including rocket-powered spacecraft, vertical take-off aeroplanes, giant transporters, and experimental rotorcraft. X-planes are by no means exclusively military. In just over a century, civilian engineers and test pilots have advanced aeronautics from the tentative hops of the Wright Flyer to beyond the atmosphere with the SpaceShipOne,and are certain to go higher, faster and further. X-Planes and Prototypes details 150 of of these incredible and unusual aircraft, from the early years of aviation to the present day, exploring their capabilities, features and development. Each aircraft is illustrated with a full page photograph, annotated to show particularly unusual or experimental features, while the lively text provides an insight into the history and test career of each type, alongside archive images from the aircraft's heyday, artwork or diagrams.

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U.S. Airpower at Sea

If you have never been aboard an aircraft carrier, your first visit will be a surprise. First, the size is overwhelming. The USS Enterprise, CVN-65, for example, is 1,123 feet long with a breadth of 257 feet. Its flight deck area is 4.47 acres and its height, keel to mast top is 250 feet, equal to a 25 storey building. An aircraft carrier is quite simply the largest warship in the world. Next, the activity level is astonishing. Thousands of crewmembers make their homes in these floating cities and, particularly when air operations are underway, the combination of action and clamor is difficult for the novice to endure. In the bowels of the monster below the flightdeck, one is occasionally unaware of being on a ship at sea. Shops, huge dining halls, a post office-television and radio stations, library, recreation areas, work rooms - all have a life beyond day or night. The city lives twenty-four hours a day and the sky well above can be sunny, stormy or dark and go virtually unknown to those immersed in life inside.

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The 31st Fighter Group in WW2

The 31 st Fighter Group, which was to create a proud record in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) during World War II, was created from another fine Army Air Forces unit, the 94th Fighter Squadron. The 94th had been born during World War I as the 94th Aero Squadron, one of whose famed aviators was Eddie Rickenbacker, and his example of skilled aggression in the art of aerial combat was to be upheld by the fledgling group's pilots. The 31st Fighter Group was constituted as the 31st Pursuit Group (Interceptor) on 22 December 1939 and activated at Selfridge Field, Michigan, on 1 February 1940. Its first commanding officer was Lt. Col. Harold George, who later, after promotion to brigadier general, would command all air units in the Philippines as a member of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's staff. Squadron numbers 39, 40, and 41 were assigned to the group, but these numbers would not be carried into action.

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Republic P-47 Thunderbolt Vol.4

The usual spate of activity at the American advanced landing ground at Asch, Belgium - officially referred to as Y-29 -was evident from the early hours of 1st January 1945. The day dawned mildly cloudy but the skies were clearing up. The ground crews were readying Thunderbolts of 366th Fighter Group (366th FG), 9th U.S. Army Air Force (9th AF), going through pre-flight checks, shackling up bombs and topping off tanks. Despite the ingenuity and high spirits of the 366th's personnel, the New Year's Eve party was hardly exhilarant. Billeted in winterised but nevertheless cold and damp tents, in remote, bleak stretch of land near the frontline zone, they had little to comfort themselves with besides some liquor, often of doubtful provenience. Mugs of strong black coffee were usually enough to bring slightly groggy pilots back to operational life. As a last resort, a couple of swigs from their fighters' onboard oxygen installations - a proven trick to fight off a hangover - would do miracles.

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Republic P-47 Thunderbolt Vol.3

On 12th May 1944, the 8th U.S. Army Air Force despatched a massive aerial armada consisting of 886 heavy bombers and 735 fighters, to strike deep within the Third Reich at its most vulnerable point - its oil refineries. The assigned targets were Merse-burg, Liitzkendorf (presently Krumpa), Zwickau, Bohlen and Zeitz in the eastern part of Germany, as well as Brux (at present Most) in Czechoslovakia. Among the secondary targets was a Junkers plant in Merscburg. While the Allied tactical air force was busy depleting German logistical and defensive capabilities in northern France prior to the impending invasion of Europe, the Mighty Eighth, as the 8th AF came to be known, was in a sense waging its own war against Nazi Germany. The sturdy old Thunderbolts were becoming scarce in the Eighth - which by that period of the war had already come to depend heavily on the longer-range Mustangs. P-47s were still flown by the veterans of the 8th AF: the 56th and 78th Fighter Groups, as well as by relative latecomers to the ETO: the 353rd and 356th FGs. Other units of VIII Fighter Command, namely the 359th and 361st FGs, had wasted no time in converting from P-47s to P-51s. In fact, 12th May 1944 was to witness the first combat mission flown by the 361st FG in their sleek, elegant Mustangs.

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Republic P-47 Thunderbolt Vol.2

Four days after an atomic bomb 'mushroom cloud' had blossomed over Nagasaki, the pilots of the 507th FG took to the air on their 35th combat mission. Each of the 53 P-47Ns that took part sported a yellow-painted tail, the vivid colour contrasting starkly with the blue sky and the grey ocean. The line of fighters gently bobbed up and down as it made its way northwest. A couple of pilots reported malfunctions and had to be escorted back to le Shima airbase by their comrades. Overall, during the three hours of the initial leg of their flight, 15 machines aborted. Shortly after 13:0() hours the formation of 38 silvery Thunderbolts reached the area of Seoul. To the great surprise of the Americans, they almost immediately encountered some 50 aircraft cruising at different heights over the Korean capital- all marked with red Hinomarus. At that stage of the war it was a rare sight, and most probably the last chance to score an aerial victory against a Japanese aircraft.

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Republic P-47 Thunderbolt Vol.1

On 26th June 1943 forty-eight Thunderbolts of the 56th Fighter Group got airborne from a forward landing strip at RAF Manston, on the English coast at Rams-gate. They were briefed to cover the withdrawal of 250 four-engined heavy bombers, returning from a raid against the Luftwaffe airbase at Villacoublay. Lt. Robert S.Johnson, a pilot with the 61st Fighter Squadron, was quartering the sky, looking for enemy aircraft. Suddenly, there they were - 16 dots closing at high speed from the rear, barely visible in the blinding glare of the sun. Focke Wulf 190s of II./JG 26 "Schlageter". Trying hard to stay calm, Johnson reported his sighting to the flight leader: Sixteen bandits at six o'clock coming in fast, this is Key-worth Blue 4, over. To his dismay, and growing terror, none of his flight reacted. While every instinct urged him to take evasive action - to roll over on one wing and turn into the approaching enemy - his military discipline forced him to maintain his position as tail-end-Charlie in the formation. Struggling to contain his excitement, the young pilot frantically gave the alarm, again and again - but this time his words were brutally interrupted by a hail of gun-fire.

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McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Since 1920 Vol.2

Fourth child of a cotton grower of Little Rock, Arkansas, James Smith McDonnell was born in Denver, Colorado, on 9 April, 1899. He was rather withdrawn and shy as a child but displayed considerable energy and, being an early riser, every morning before going to school, went on horseback to deliver copies of the Arkansas Gazette. After graduating in 1917 from Little Rock High School and serving briefly in the Army, James McDonnell went to Princeton University in New Jersey where, while studying physics, he began to show interest in politics and also obtained his first flying experience. However, James McDonnell Sr, conscious that his son was 'too shy and too serious' to become a politician, cut short his son's political ambition and advised him to pursue a career in aeronautical engineering, a suggestion which subsequent events amply justified.

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McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Since 1920 Vol.1

The Douglas Aircraft Company and its forebears-which, for many years after 1924 when two World Cruisers accomplished the first round-the-world flight, proudly displayed the motto 'First around the World'—have produced a fascinating variety of aeroplanes which have greatly contributed to the development of civil and military aeronautics throughout the world. Especially since World War II, commercial and military transport aircraft built by Douglas or, in the case of the Li-2 Colt, built in the Soviet Union have been operated by virtually every nation in the world and have been flown under all climatic conditions from the heat of the equatorial jungles to the bitter cold of the North and South Poles. The Douglas companies also excelled over a period of almost half a century in designing and producing a successful line of combat aircraft. Notably, ever since 14 April, 1921, when the fledgling Davis-Douglas Co was awarded its first military contract, $119,550 to build and test three DT-1 naval torpedo bombers, the name Douglas has been closely associated with US Naval Aviation.

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Hornet's Nest - Marine Air Group 31

"Fightertown East," now located in Beaufort, South Carolina, is the home of Marine Air Group 31 (MAG-31) which has existed since 1943. Currently the largest Marine strike Fighter Base on the east coast, it is comprised of seven squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets which provide the bulk of firepower to the Second Marine Aircraft Wing (2d MAW). The history of the mag has emulated the proud history of the Marine Corps in even detail from its very inception. Marine Air Croup 31 was commissioned at Cherry Point. North Carolina on February 1, 1943. From October 2, 1943 until October 12, 1945, the Croup operated throughout the Pacific area and played an important role In the Battle for Okinawa. Subsequent to the seizure of Okinawa. MAG-31 squadrons continued their part In the war by conducting operations from Yantan Airfield on the island. While at Okinawa. MAG-31 was commanded by Colonel John C. Munn. who later would become a Lieutenant General and Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps.

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Air War Over Southeast Asia - A Pictorial Record Vol.1 1962-1966

The Vietnam War was the result of policies which were formulated during the latter stages of World War II. President Roosevelt, determined that prewar colonialism would not survive, opposed a French return to Indochina after the war. Winston Churchill, with a more pragmatic view of the post-war world, saw the French return to Indochina as both inevitable, (they had been there since the sixteenth century) and desirable. Churchill was not only the author of the euphemism Iron Curtain, he was also visionary enough to forsee it's existence once Russia had consolidated it's World War II conquests. He realized that the coming struggle with communism would know no boundaries, and that western influence in what would later come to be called the Third World would be essential to containment of communism. The task of disarming the Japanese in Indochina after VJ day fell to the British and the Nationalist Chinese. With British sympathies firmly in favor of restoration of the French mandate in Indochina, and with Chinese indifference to anything except the traditional rewards of a conquering army, it was perhaps inevitable that their respective spheres of influence would bear the imprint of their occupation.

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Air Pictorial 1956 03

THE urge to race and win against his rivals has always been in man, and over the centuries he has used many different types of vehicle to carry him to victory. The twentieth century has seen him borne on his fastest mount—the aeroplane—and in the first half of the 1930s the American racing pilot was provided with one of the most unusual and controversial series of racers ever built, the Granville Brothers' Gee-Bees. Daring both in their design and in their flying, they played an outstanding part in the most colourful period of American air racing, and twenty-five years have now passed since they first flashed on to the scene, to win fame both at home and abroad, over the short span of half a decade. Madison, New Hampshire, was the birthplace of the five Granville brothers — Edward, Mark, Robert, Thomas and Zant-ford. Their youth was spent in Madison, but the family later moved to Arlington, Massachusetts, and the brothers went into business repairing automobiles. Trade of a different nature began to come their way with repairs to crashed aircraft, encouraging Zantford D. Granville to take his pilot's certificate in 1925.

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