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Air & Space Magazine

★ Lockheed P-38 Lightning ★ Though no Luftwaffe pilot was ever happy to see the P-38 (they called it the “forked-tail devil”), the twin-engine, twin-boom fighter made its reputation in the Pacific, where pilots outfought Mitsubishi A6M Zeros. With speeds in excess of 400 mph, a range of 1,300 miles, and four M2 Browning .50s in its nose, the Lightning was a threat in any theater.

The Fighter That Shot Down Yamamoto

★ Consolidated B-24 Liberator ★ The big, four-engine B-24 never shared the glory of Boeing’s beautiful B-17, but it worked harder. It could carry a heavier load—8,000 pounds of bombs—over a longer distance—2,850 miles. It is also the most produced U.S. aircraft of the war: 18,000 were built.

Mission to Ploesti: B-24 Liberators

★ North American P-51 Mustang ★ Most people who know warbirds consider the P-51 (foreground, flying with a B-17 during a 2009 demonstration) the best fighter of World War II. It was conceived in April 1940, when the Royal Air Force asked North American Aviation to build more Curtiss P-40s. North American’s President Dutch Kindelberger countered with an offer to deliver a wholly new design, and the first Mustang flew six months later. In the following year, the addition of a Merlin 61 engine (upgraded in later models) gave the XP-51B the combination of range and speed that would come to secure the P-51’s legend. Escorting bombers to Berlin and whupping the German fighters that attacked them, the P-51 was significant in weakening the German air force.

All the Way to Berlin with Mustangs

★ Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress ★ The Boeing B-17 flew with nine or ten crewmen, depending on the year of the war, and each had a one in four chance of completing his 25 required missions. The strategic bombers flew some of the most hazardous missions of the war, hitting heavily defended German oil refineries, munitions plants, and transportation hubs. The most succinct compliment was paid to the four-engine Boeing by General Carl Spaatz, who, as the commander of U.S. Strategic Forces in Europe in 1944, knew what he was talking about. “Without the B-17,” he said, “we might have lost the war.”

B-17s and a Big Week of Bombing

★ Douglas C-47 Skytrain ★ Derived from the DC-3 airliner, the C-47 served with all the Allied air forces fighting the Axis powers during the Second World War, and it was license-produced in the Soviet Union. Known as the Dakota in British and Commonwealth service, C-47s flew in every combat theater. They carried paratroops, freight, and towed transport gliders. They also flew on search-and-rescue missions, medical evacuation flights, and on special operations inserting and recovering covert agents and sabotage teams, and supporting the activities of resistance fighters operating behind enemy lines.

C-47s on D-Day

★ Martin B-26 Marauder ★ The B-26 was a medium bomber that could deliver 4,000 pounds of bombs on a target 1,000 miles from its home base. Built by the Glenn L. Martin Company near Baltimore, Maryland, the bomber got the nickname “Martin Murderer" because of the high number of landing accidents. Its fast approach speeds were a challenge for inexperienced pilots. By the end of the war, it held a different title: “most survivable.” It had the lowest loss rate of any Allied bomber. The B-26 being restored at the National Air and Space Museum flew more missions in Europe than any other U.S. aircraft: 207.

B-26 Marauders, A-26 Invaders

★ Grumman TBF Avenger ★ The Grumman TBF, or TBM if one of the 7,546 built by General Motors’ Eastern Division, was a three-seat sub stalker and torpedo bomber that scored a big victory in the Battle of Guadalcanal by sinking the 37,000-ton Japanese battleship Hiei. More Avengers were lost than ships destroyed in the Pacific, however, including one TBM that suffered engine failure after catapulting off the light carrier San Jacinto. The pilot, the 20 year-old George H.W. Bush, bailed out.

Hellcats, Helldivers, and Avengers

★ Republic P-47 Thunderbolt ★ The heaviest single-engine aircraft of the war, the P-47 was a tail-sitter with wide-stance landing gear and flat-face radial engine giving it the look of an aggressive bull-dog. Its 2,000-hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 18-cylinder radial engine, boosted by a General Electric turbosupercharger, endowed it with 400+ mph performance up to 40,000 feet. But it frequently flew low to annihilate armored vehicles, trains, gun emplacements, and anything unlucky enough to be under its flight path.

P-47s Did It All

★ Vought FG-1D Corsair ★ Another fighter powered by the Pratt & Whitney R-2800, the Corsair was intended for the Navy, but the initial designs provided pilot visibility too poor for carrier landings. Early production runs were given to the Marines, therefore, who turned them into legend. When the cockpit hood was redesigned, the Navy needed so many Corsairs that Vought opened production lines with Brewster and Goodyear—the former producing the FG-1 series, which flew in the May 2014 flyover. Above is an F4U-5N.

Corsairs, the Angels of Iwo Jima

★ Boeing B-29 Superfortress ★ It was the ultimate U.S. weapon, a high-altitude strategic bomber with the speed of a fighter, a 3,200-mile range, and the capacity to carry 20,000 pounds of explosives. The Boeing B-29 ended World War II. On August 6, 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay dropped a uranium fission bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A few days later, a B-29 named Bockscar destroyed Nagasaki with a plutonium bomb. The Japanese surrendered on September 2, and the Atomic Age had begun.

B-29s Become the Ultimate Weapons

★ Bell P-39 Aerocobra ★ P-39s did their best work on the Eastern front, where Soviet pilots did battle with the Luftwaffe at medium altitude. A decision not to equip the Allison engine in the P-39 with a two-stage supercharger left it gasping for air at high altitudes.

A History of WW2 in 25 Airplanes

A Comet Comes to Life

As Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko gets closer to the sun, the ice begins to heat up and subliminate into dusty gas shooting from the surface. This picture is a mosaic of four images taken by the Rosetta spacecraft on February 3, 2015.

Duke Ellington rehearsing (left) his original composition “Moon Maiden,” and taping his performance (right) on July 15, 1969.

Duke Ellington Sings About the First Moon Landing

In 1969, the jazz composer performed a rare vocal to mark Apollo 11’s historic flight.

Titan’s Northern Seas

This image of Saturn’s moon Titan’s north polar seas is a mosaic made from the Cassini spacecraft’s flyby in August 2014. While the human eye would see just haze, the near-infrared images show sunlight causing a specular reflection near Kraken Mare, Titan’s largest sea.

Amelia Earhart's pilot's license (dated May 16, 1923), only the 16th issued by the FAA to a female pilot.

Why Are There So Few Female Pilots?

Identifying the barriers that stop women from flying.

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Tugan Four-Color

The photograph of this Australian-made Tugan aircraft was taken on a glass slide with Dufaycolour, one of the first color printing processes developed in 1908.

One of the only Mickey insignia to show him in a combat setting, this design was created for Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 245, Marine Aircraft Group 23.

When Disney Went to War

During World War II, the cartoon studio created hundreds of insignia for American troops.

Hubble view of Jupiter moons transiting the planets surface on January 24, 2015.

VIDEO: Hubble’s Hat Trick

The space telescope captures three moons crossing the disk of Jupiter at the same time.

Israel's 101 Fighter Squadron in 1948.

The Untold Story of U.S. Pilots Who Flew for Israel in 1948

A new documentary introduces the American volunteers who founded Israel’s first Air Force.

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Spooky at Sunset

At Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, U.S. Air Force airmen work on a Lockheed AC-130U Spooky ground-attack gunship.

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