When the United States Army Air Forces wanted an operational jet fighter of their own, the War Department's wish was Kelly Johnson's command. They sure wished upon this shooting star. The Lockheed P-80 was the first jet fighter used operationally by the USAAF. The aircraft was designed and built by Lockheed in [...]
It sounds useful – and unlikely; yet, believe it or not, a US Navy aircraft, capable of supersonic speeds and water takeoff and landing, was crafted over half-a-century ago. It was called the F2Y Sea Dart, and it was probably the coolest looking machine that ever…well…floated. The now-defunct Convair aircraft manufacturing company entered a “contest” [...]
Military aircraft are a bit like fashion models: as soon as they show even the slightest signs of age, they are pulled from the runway. Understandably so. Putting our nation’s military pilots at risk for the sake of a few extra miles is not something the United States is keen on doing. In spite of [...]
New Exhibit Takes Flight The Museum of Flight is kind of a big deal--in fact, it's the largest non-profit air and space museum in the world. Located in Seattle, Washington, the museum features over 175 different aircraft and spacecraft, tens of thousands of aviation artifacts, millions of rare photographs, dozens of exhibits, a world class [...]
A Sophisticated Heat Beam While the notion of lasers and particle beam weapons would have once been limited to the realms of science fiction, the truth is that ever since the laser was invented in 1960, it’s been leaching out of the Star Trek universe into our very real, very tangible world (and no, it’s [...]
