The Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet is not to be confused with the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet—although the former was based on the latter. This hornet is super This twin-engine, supersonic, all-weather multirole fighter jet is capable of landing and taking off from an aircraft carrier. What is perhaps the most impressive feat [...]
The Bell X-1, piloted by Chuck Yeager, was the first manned airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight. In 1942, the UK's Ministry of Aviation began working on a super top secret project with Miles Aircraft to develop the world's first aircraft to break the sound barrier. While working on the project, they developed [...]
Supersonic commercial transport existed for 30 years--what happened? The 1950s was a time of communism, capitalism, polypropylene, and polio vaccines--not to mention the maturity and growth of television sets, solar-powered wrist watches, and the beginnings of the Concorde project. By the early 1950s, Arnold Hall (director of the Royal Aircraft Establishment) asked Morien Morgan (a [...]
With the Independence Day weekend upon us, I decided to choose a plane somewhat synonymous with my childhood memories of patriotism. I can vividly remember as a child going to the local airshow every year at some point in July, eager to see the Blue Angels flying at lightning speeds in front of a cheering [...]
