History

It’s been 31 years since the Aloha Airlines flight 243 tragedy in the skies. On April 28, 1988, Aloha Airlines Flight 243 was a scheduled Aloha Airlines flight between Hilo and Honolulu in Hawaii. The Flight was just another routine interisland flight. Cruising at 24,000 feet, an 18-foot section of …

The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is a military aerial refuelling aircraft. The KC-135 was the US Air Force’s first jet-powered refuelling tanker. Legendary KC-135 entered service with the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1957; it is one of six military fixed-wing aircraft with over 50 years of continuous service. The …

On 18 December 1969, SR-71A (61-7953) was scheduled for a functional check flight (FCF), piloted by SR-71/F-12 Test Force director Col. Joe Rogers and his Reconnaissance Systems Operator (RSO), Maj. Gary Heidelbaugh. The aircraft configuration included, for the first time ever, the Optical Bar Camera (OBC) nose assembly and some …

A man who bought a new house in Middlesbrough found something that was not in the property’s details – a Second World War bunker. when looking through the overgrown grass in his garden, Mr Scott discovered what he originally thought was a drain pipe cover but But it turned out …

On the morning of Jan. 17, 1991 — the first night of Operation Desert Storm — the U.S. Navy suffered its first loss of the conflict, when Lt. Cmdr Scott Speicher was shot down in his McDonnell F/A-18C Hornet, bureau number 163484, around 100 miles west of Baghdad. Operation Desert Storm, popularly known as …

On Mar. 21, 1962 a B-58 Hustler from the U.S. Air Force erupted in flames as a large, bright red capsule shot out of it, carrying a passenger to safety. But the passenger wasn’t a pilot, and the plane wasn’t crashing. The event was a test of the B-58’s experimental …

On 19 April 1989, the Number Two 16-inch gun turret of the United States Navy battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) exploded. The explosion in the center gun room killed 47 of the turret’s crewmen and severely damaged the gun turret itself. On April 19, 1989, the day of the blast, the …

On April 18th, 1942, less than four months after the attacked Pearl Harbor the United States was about to launch their first offensive against the Japanese. Leading this incredibly dangerous mission into unknown territory was the legendary Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle. He assembled the finest B-25 Mitchells crews went through …

Retired Lt. Col. Dick Cole, the last surviving member of the Doolittle Raiders who rallied the nation’s spirit during the darkest days of World War II, has passed away. Tom Casey, president of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders Association, confirmed to Air Force Times that Cole died Tuesday morning in San …

The sad story of two USAF pilots Who Lost Their Lives in F-111 shot down during Operation El Dorado Canyon On Apr. 14, 1986, at 5:13 p.m., U.S. Air Force (USAF) F-111F Aardvarks from the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) took off from Royal Air Force (RAF) Lakenheath on the …