U.S. Navy Aircraft History

Jets weren't compatible with the barrier cable system used on axial deck carriers to protect the people and planes forward of the landin...

The tail hook is one of the critical elements of navy carrier operations. It's a simple device, which when coupled with a massi...

In 1954, McDonnell proposed what was to become the F4H Phantom with two different engines, the Wright J65 or the General Electric J79. In th...

Above is bombing accuracy data from the service trials of the Vought A-7E Corsair II used to compute its CEP, Circular Error Probable, the c...

Bashing former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara over the F-111 program failure to produce a joint service fighter is still a popular ...

Not really errata, per se, but not my intention. The illustration above—also by the inestimable R.G. Smith—is the baseline Douglas D-593 fro...

Sometimes—in spite of my best efforts and those of the editor and layout artists—something goes clang instead of click. In this case, it was...