Aviation and Military History
With its P-80 Shooting Star firmly established in production during 1945, in July of that year Lockheed was able to commit its development team to the start of work on a more advanced fighter. The first step in this process was the creation of a number of conceptual designs, and these eventually totalled more than …
Continue reading “Fighters which did not make the cut – the Lockheed F-90”
Bearing a close conceptual and structural resemblance with the P-84 (later F-84) Thunderjet series in its fuselage and the F-84F Thunderstreak in its swept tail unit, Republic’s design for a ‘penetration fighter’ received an initial US Army Air Forces order in March 1946 for two XP-91 prototypes which emerged only after the USAAF had become …
Continue reading “Fighters which did not make the cut: The Republic F-91 ‘Thunderceptor’”
In the period after World War II, the USSR rapidly emerged as the only power on Earth capable of challenging the USA militarily, and as wartime relations cooled toward the ‘Cold War’ situation which dominated global affairs between 1947 and 1989, the USA came to rely on nuclear (and later thermonuclear bombing) as its primary …
Continue reading “Fighters which did not make the cut: The McDonnell F-85 Goblin”
While the ‘Worcester’ class ships with 6-in (152.4-mm) guns can be considered the heavyweights of the anti-aircraft cruiser, they were too late for service in World War II and built only in small numbers. The ‘Atlanta’ class ships with 5-in (127-mm) guns were the middleweights of the type, saw widespread service in World War II …
Continue reading “The anti-aircraft cruiser – the US ‘Atlanta’ class”
A history of the Japanese Nakajima K-12, a prototype fighter which eventually evolved into the highly successful Ki-27 some years later.
A history of the Vought V-141 (which later became the V-143), a US prototype monoplane fighter which was sold to Japan, but ultimately never reached production.
A history of the Boeing P-29 which was a prototype monoplane fighter designed for the USAAC and its development before it was eventually scrapped.
A history of the Boeing F7B which was a prototype carrierborne fighter designed for the US Navy. It is considered to be one of the first generation ‘modern’ monoplane fighters.
A history of the Curtiss F13C, which was a US 1930s monoplane fighter designed for carrierborne operations, including the specifications of Curtiss XF13C-1.
A history of the Fokker D.XXI which was designed in 1935 and was used by the Netherlands East Indies Army during WW2, including its production and service history.