Flight Journal

Just what is it about the Mustang and the warriors who flew it that make it so iconic and appealing? This combat machine has transcended its mechanized assemblies and sheet metal to mythic status. The magnificent lines, design, and unmistakable Merli

I grew up during an exciting time for aviation. My first recollection of flying was at about 10 years old when I shook Lucky Lindbergh’s hand. In fourth grade I won a model airplane contest, and the prize was my first ride in an open cockpit plane. I

George Shepard was my wingman on April 17, 1945. We were issued the usual equipment and rode to our ships on the hood of a Jeep. The weather was fine that day. We took off about 9 a.m., formed up and headed to meet up with our assigned Bomb Group. I

The Air Combat Museum boasts an impressive and growing collection of old iron, including the P-51 Mustang “Worry Bird” featured in this story. This 1944 model saw combat service during WW II and is painted as one flown by Bob Frisch of the 339th Figh

Harvey watched the first P-40 in the landing pattern sequence touch and immediately flip. Apprehensive, but with no other choice since every aircraft’s low-fuel-pressure light flickered red after an exhausting positioning flight, he lowered the “alig

During his initial exposure to Libyan skies as a Canadian with Royal Air Force 94 Squadron on March 23, 1942, 21-year-old Lt. James Francis Edwards, a former Saskatchewan farm boy, helped escort 12 South African Air Force Douglas A-20 Havoc bombers t

Conceived as a private venture and initially relying on internal funding only, the Northrop F-5 “Freedom Fighter” design (N-156) was initiated in the 1950s. The goal was to provide a lightweight, inexpensive, easy-to-maintain fighter aircraft. At fir

Having flown in a variety of tactical aircraft, the first thing I realized is how complicated the strap-in process is compared to other more contemporary assets. If you do it every day or two, though, you can quickly master it. Once you get the hang

A U.S. Marine Corps 4th Reserve squadron, the Snipers are based at MCAS Yuma, Arizona. The installation hosts WTI (Weapons Tactics Instructors) major exercises twice a year, plus they are instrumental in supporting USMC F/A-18 training scenarios, inc

This article relates missions over Germany through the personal accounts of men no longer young. They have little in common but their memories and that they once flew high in the deadly skies over Hitler’s Germany to deliver destruction to the Nazi w

Chimu fighter strip was on the portion of Okinawa closest to Japan. My squadron, VMF-224, had been sent to Chimu from Yontan Airfield for the purpose of early interception of aircraft in the event of enemy attack and for mounting fighter sweeps over

Combat aircraft assigned to ground fighting battalions, brigades and divisions of the Army belong to pure Army aviation—not the Air Force—and trace their origins to June 6, 1942, when the first fabric-covered light planes joined artillery units. The

Burrows’s 21 black-and-white shots of a Marine helicopter crew on a mission near Da Nang are, by now, among the most recognizable images of the Vietnam War—14 brief pages of photographs in a popular news magazine, the record of a single day in the li