The Phantom Fortress of Cortonburg and the B-seventeen that landed itself with no crew aboard
On November 23, 1944, a crewless B-17 Flying Fortress flew itself from Germany to Belgium and landed intact in a farmer's field.
TaildraggerWorld War II aviation
The Focke-Wulf one ninety and the first flight of the Butcher Bird on June first, nineteen thirty-nine
The Focke-Wulf 190 first flew on June 1, 1939, and became one of WWII's most feared fighters thanks to Kurt Tank's radical radial-engine design.
TaildraggerEric Winkle Brown and the pilot who flew more types of aircraft than any human being in history
Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown flew 487 different aircraft types and made 2,407 carrier landings — records that will never be broken.
TaildraggerGlacier Girl and the P-thirty-eight Lightning pulled from two hundred sixty-eight feet of Greenland ice
The incredible true story of Glacier Girl, a P-38 Lightning recovered from 268 feet of Greenland ice and restored to flying condition.
TaildraggerThe forty-eight-hour miracle that saved USS Yorktown and turned the tide at Midway
How 1,400 shipyard workers repaired USS Yorktown in 72 hours, giving the Navy the third carrier that won the Battle of Midway.
TaildraggerThe Lady Be Good and the ghost bomber found perfectly preserved in the Libyan desert fifteen years after it vanished
The Lady Be Good, a B-24 Liberator lost in 1943, was found perfectly preserved in the Libyan desert 15 years later with no crew aboard.
TaildraggerThe Night Witches and the plywood bombers that terrorized the Eastern Front
The Night Witches flew 23,000 combat sorties in plywood biplanes, becoming one of WWII's most feared bomber units.
TaildraggerThe RAF over Dunkirk on May twenty-eighth, nineteen forty and the Spitfires the Army never saw
On May 28, 1940, RAF fighters fought and died over Dunkirk in battles the soldiers below never saw.
TaildraggerThe Gremlin Special and the hidden valley rescue that used a glider snatch off a jungle floor
The 1945 Gremlin Special crash in New Guinea's hidden Baliem Valley led to one of WWII's most daring rescues using glider snatch recovery.
TaildraggerThe P-thirty-eight Lightning and Operation Vengeance, the four-hundred-mile intercept that killed Admiral Yamamoto
How sixteen P-38 Lightnings flew 400 miles at wave-top height to intercept and kill Admiral Yamamoto in 1943.
TaildraggerThe Grumman F6F Hellcat and the fighter built from a captured enemy's secrets
How a crashed Japanese Zero in Alaska's Aleutian Islands gave Grumman the intelligence to build the F6F Hellcat and turn the Pacific air war.
TaildraggerThe Fairey Swordfish biplanes that attacked the Bismarck on the night of May twenty-fourth, nineteen forty-one
Nine obsolete Swordfish biplanes attacked the battleship Bismarck on May 24, 1941, and every one survived.
TaildraggerSaburo Sakai and the four-hour flight home blind in one eye from Guadalcanal
How Saburo Sakai flew 560 miles home with a bullet in his head after being hit over Guadalcanal in 1942.
TaildraggerThe Ijmuiden disaster and the B-twenty-six Marauder crews who redeemed the Widow Maker
The B-26 Marauder went from the most feared bomber in the Army Air Forces to the lowest combat loss rate of any American bomber in Europe.
TaildraggerOperation Chastise and the Dambusters who skipped bombs across German reservoirs at sixty feet on May sixteenth, nineteen forty-three
On May 16, 1943, nineteen Lancaster bombers attacked Germany's Ruhr Valley dams using spinning bouncing bombs dropped at exactly sixty feet.
TaildraggerThe Memphis Belle restoration and the thirteen years it took to bring her back from the brink at the National Museum of the United States Air Force
The Memphis Belle's 13-year restoration at Wright-Patterson required thousands of decisions to save a B-17 America nearly let disintegrate.
TaildraggerThe Phantom Fortress and the B-seventeen that landed itself in a Belgian field with no crew aboard
A B-17 bomber flew over 100 miles and landed in a Belgian field in 1944 with no crew aboard after all hands bailed out over Germany.
TaildraggerOperation Vengeance and the P-thirty-eight Lightnings that flew four hundred miles to kill Admiral Yamamoto
How sixteen P-38 Lightnings flew 400 miles on dead reckoning to intercept and kill Admiral Yamamoto in April 1943.
TaildraggerJimmy Stewart and the movie star who flew twenty combat missions over Nazi Germany in a B-twenty-four Liberator
Jimmy Stewart flew twenty combat missions over Nazi Germany in a B-24 Liberator, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross twice.
TaildraggerThe Doolittle Raid and the sixteen B-twenty-fives that launched from a carrier deck no one believed could hold them
The Doolittle Raid launched sixteen B-25 bombers from a carrier deck to strike Tokyo, changing the course of the Pacific War.
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