World War II fighter pilots are often remembered through dramatic images of dogfights, aces, and famous aircraft such as the P-51 Mustang, Spitfire, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Zero, and F6F Hellcat. But the real experience of a fighter pilot was much…
In the opening months of the Pacific War, Allied fighter pilots encountered an aircraft that seemed to break the normal rules of fighter design. The Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero could fly extraordinary distances, climb quickly, turn with astonis…
A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress mission over Germany could begin before sunrise and end many hours later with a crew returning to England exhausted, frozen, wounded—or not returning at all. The B-17 became one of the most recognizable American air…
When the Royal Air Force began operating the Boeing B-29 Superfortress in the early 1950s, it gave the aircraft a British service name: Washington B.1 . The RAF's opinion of the Washington was more complicated than simply liking or disliking i…
In the summer of 1940, Britain stood in a dangerous position. France had fallen. German forces controlled much of Western Europe. The British Army had escaped from Dunkirk but left behind large quantities of equipment, and Adolf Hitler ordered p…
