fighter aircraft

The Hangar Sep 2, 2026

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, Alexander Kartveli's Jug, and the Seven-Ton Fighter That Brought Pilots Home When Nothing Else Should Have

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was the heaviest single-engine fighter of WWII - and its near-indestructibility made it one of the most effective combat aircraft ever built.

Taildragger

The Hangar Aug 31, 2026

The North American P-51 Mustang, the Laminar Flow Wing, and the Merlin Marriage That Won the Air War Over Europe

The P-51 Mustang became WWII's finest piston-engine fighter through bold engineering decisions, a revolutionary wing, and one test pilot's honest memo.

Taildragger

ATIS Jul 23, 2026

A Ukrainian F Sixteen Downs a Russian Fighter for the First Time, and What the Fighting Falcon Actually Brought to the Fight

A Ukrainian F-16 scored its first confirmed air-to-air kill against a Russian jet in early July, per Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.

Tower

The Hangar May 27, 2026

The McDonnell F-four Phantom and the first flight of the jet that owned every mission in every service on May twenty-seventh, nineteen fifty-eight

On May 27, 1958, the McDonnell F-4 Phantom made its first flight - an unwanted jet that became the defining fighter of a generation.

Taildragger