Kategoria BISAC: History >> Military - Aviation & Space

The Douglas AD Skyraider is considered the most effective naval aircraft of the Korean War, overshadowed in fame by the new jet fighters that captured the public imagination. Too late for combat in World War II, the AD had replaced Dauntless, Helldiver, and Avenger dive- and torpedo-bombers from that conflict on carrier decks during the late 1940s and was on hand to react to the surprise North Korean invasion of South Korea in June 1950.

This book tells the story of the carrier-based U.S. Navy squadrons and the three land-based U.S. Marine Corps AD units that flew combat missions...

Although the United States declared war against Germany in December 1941, a successful assault on Nazi-occupied Europe could not happen until Germany's industrial and military might were crippled. The first target was the Luftwaffe--the most powerful and battle-hardened air force in the world. The United States Army Air Forces joined with Great Britain's already-engaged Royal Air Force to launch a strategic air campaign that ultimately brought the Luftwaffe to its knees. One of the standout units of this campaign was...

Although seen as a replacement for the A6M Zero-sen carrier-based fighter, the Mitsubishi J2M Raiden was actually designed as a land-based naval interceptor optimized for speed rather than maneuverability. Engine cooling problems for its Mitsubishi Kasai 23 engine and airflow and flight control issues plagued the Raiden's development, but despite these production delays, aces Sadaaki Akamatsu Yoshihiro Aoki, Susumu Ito and Susumu Ishihara all claimed significant scores in the Raiden.

Kawanishi's N1K family of fighters were privately developed by the manufacturer from the N1K Kyofu...

Frank opinions are voiced on how the North Vietnamese viewed the gradual escalation of the aerial conflict over their country, including details on key operations and VPAF tactics against USAF F-4s, F-105s, F-8s and B-52s.

Details of the Black Friday Massacre, America's heaviest aerial...

The Spitfire turns eighty on March 5, 2016, and the passion for the Royal Air Force's best-loved fighter is running at an all-time high. There are more than fifty Spitfires flying in the world today, and John Dibbs has shot virtually all of them, "on the wing," in his breathtaking style.

This eye-catching book combines this unique collection of stunning photos with poignant firsthand accounts of flying the airplane in combat from some of the most famous Aces to pilot the Spitfire and from some of the forgotten pilots. Chronicling the history of this most iconic of British aircraft,...

The Vought Corsair was the first American single-engine fighter to exceed four hundred mph, establishing dominance over the Mitsubishi Type Zero-sen with a kill ratio greater than ten to one. The Ki-84 Hayate was introduced by the Japanese specifically to counter this growing American dominance of the skies over the Pacific. Built in greater numbers than any other late-war Japanese fighter, nearly three thousand were completed between 1944 and 1945.

This volume examines the clashes between the Corsair and Ki-84 in the closing stages of the war, revealing how Corsair pilots had to...

The F-4 Phantom II is perhaps the most famous postwar fighter. Primarily used as a land-based fighter-bomber and reconnaissance platform, its legend is owed to its naval origins and the immense contribution its original carrier-based versions made to the U.S. war effort in Vietnam.

This title examines the unique aspects of the Phantom that made it so crucial to U.S. Navy pilots during the Vietnam War: its massive engine power, long range, speed, the most powerful airborne search and fire-control radar installed in a fighter at the time, and, of course, its versatility as a ground...

The Fw 200 Condor first made an appearance over Norway in April 1940, flying with the unit that eventually become synonymous with it: Kampfgeschwader 40. As the war in the west progressed and German forces advanced, French airfields opened up, allowing the Condor to fly around the United Kingdom and out into the Atlantic, where it rapidly established itself as one of the key menaces to Allied shipping. Able to attack shipping directly or to guide U-boats to their prey, the Condor scored its first major success when it crippled the liner Empress of Great Britain.

But the...

Eighty years after the Spitfire was first developed, it remains an icon of military aviation. Though many associate its victory during the Battle of Britain as the high point in the history of the Spitfire, the years following were of equal importance. Having weathered the initial storm, at the start of 1941 Fighter Command took the fight to the Germans with offensive missions over the Channel.

This book reveals how RAF squadrons, first using the Spitfire I and II and then, following the introduction of the Bf 109, the cannon-armed Spitfire V, embarked on a range of missions which...

At the beginning of the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese People's Air Force (VPAF) was equipped with slow, old Korean War-generation fighters--a combination of MiG-17s and MiG-19s, types that should have offered little opposition to the cutting-edge fighter-bombers such as the F-4 Phantom II, F-105 Thunderchief, and the F-8 Crusader. Yet when the USAF and US Navy unleashed their aircraft on North Vietnam in 1965, the inexperienced pilots of the VPAF were able to shatter the illusion of U.S. air superiority.

Taking advantage of its jet's unequaled low-speed maneuverability, small size,...

In December 1941, as American forces tallied the dead at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt gathered with his senior military counselors to plan an ambitious counterstrike against the heart of the Japanese Empire: Tokyo. Four months later, on April 18, 1942, sixteen U.S. Army bombers under the command of daredevil pilot Jimmy Doolittle lifted off from the deck of the USS Hornet on a one-way mission to pummel the enemy's factories, refineries, and dockyards and then escape to Free China. For Roosevelt, the raid was a propaganda victory, a potent salve to heal a wounded nation. In...