When the Continental Navy was formed in October 1775, the Royal Navy had 350+ rated ships and another 150 in its fleet. The Continental Navy had none. In fact, our…

The landings in France wouldn’t occur until June 1944 when the United States captured 12 almost brand new A6M52 fighters along with a hangar full of spare engines and parts…

By 1943, the variants of the FW-190 were in many Luftwaffe units. When the type was first introduced in the spring of 1941, it outclassed the Spitfire Vs flown by…

There are many misconceptions about how the dogfight in World War II evolved after what we call today the “merge.” By definition, the merge is when two (or more) airplanes…

On November 18th, 1952, the Korean War had been going on for two and half years. On the ground, the war was stalemated along a line that would ultimately become…

Some say helicopters beat the air into submission so they can fly. While this is not true, the helicopter flies differently than an airplane. In many ways, it is much…

Winston Churchill once said that “democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried….” Looking at history, Churchill is (or was) right. If…

The P-51 is considered by many experts to be the best piston-engine fighter of World War II? But was it? Barring the Me-262, which was the first operational jet fighter,…

Conventional wisdom says that the performance of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero-Sen (Zero) was far superior to the Grumman F4F Wildcat. However, if that is truly the case, why is the…

The squadron that became the original Thunderbirds started as the 34th Aero Squadron during World War I. After the war, they became the 34th Pursuit Squadron, and in 1932, the…