At first glance this 1958 Ice Speedster looks like a prop from one of the original Star Wars films. In fact I wouldn’t be at all surprised if George Lucas had encountered one and used it as a base for the X-34 Landspeeder driven by Luke Skywalker on Tattoine. Snow Planes Those of you from…
The story of the Dambusters has become legendary, officially known as Operation Chastise, it was an attack on German dams using bombs that bounced across the water (like a stone skipping on a lake) until they hit the dam wall, detonated, and caused catastrophic damage. The dams were vital parts of the German war machine,…
The PBY Catalina one of the most famous seaplanes in history, over 3,300 were built between 1936 and 1957, and many of them saw active duty during the Second World War. So versatile was the Catalina that they served every branch of the United States Armed Forces, and were used extensively by the armed services…
The Supermarine Spitfire The Spitfire is not only one of the most consequential aircraft of the Second World War, it’s also one of the most famous aircraft of the 20th century. Originally developed in the mid-1930s, the Spitfire was designed by Supermarine to fill Air Ministry specification F7/30, calling for a modern fighter capable of…
This is an original Concorde attitude display indicator, oftentimes referred to as an artificial horizon. As with many aircraft, the attitude display indicator on the Concorde was positioned front and center for both the captain and co-pilot – directly above the horizontal situation indicator, to the right of the air speed indicator, and to the…
The Tupolev A-3 Aerosledge The Tupolev A-3 Aerosledge is an unusual curiosity from the depths of the cold war, the CIA and MI6 doubtless had thick folders on the craft as it was used for collecting both cosmonauts and crashed pilots in the remote areas of Siberia. Alexei Tupolev of the Tupolev Design Bureau originally developed…
The TobyRich Moskito is a $49.98 USD remote controlled airplane that you pilot using an iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphone. It wasn’t that many years ago that R/C aircraft were an expensive hobby enjoyed by relatively few – with a significant barrier to entry thanks to the fact that it was commonplace for rookie pilots…
Editor’s Note: The full documentary has now been removed, however you can still watch the trailer for it above, and you can buy the DVD using the link below. The Immortal Beaver – The World’s Greatest Bush Plane is a documentary that covers both the history of the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, and the…
The Spitfire Pen is a creation of the Hordern Richmond Aircraft Company, they’ve been in business since 1937 when the company was founded by Frederick Gordon-Lennox (the 9th Duke of Richmond) and Edmund Hordern. During WWII they built many of the propellers for British fighters and bombers, as well as the Hordern Richmond Autoplane. In…
The Douglas DC-3 is remembered as one of the most important aircraft of the 20th century – largely because of the way it revolutionised commercial passenger flight. The aircraft was designed and built to fulfill an order for Transcontinental and Western Airlines (TWA), who wanted to compete with the new Boeing 247 being flown by…
Chuck Yeager is now 94 years old, and amazingly he’s very active on Twitter – where his famously fearless personality is on full display, sharing his views, cracking jokes, and chatting with fans around the world. This film is from decades before Twitter was created, covering the now legendary feat that launched Yeager into the…
This original USAF training film from 1960 gives a 20 minute introduction to the art of dogfighting in fighter jets – otherwise known as Air Combat Maneuvering. At the beginning of the 1960s jet fighters were still relatively new, the first having been flown only 15 or so years prior. That said, men had been…
