When we asked former Blackbird, B-57 and U-2 pilot BC Thomas for his thoughts on the Top 10 spy planes he wasn't comfortable with the term, noting "The SR-71 was a Strategic Reconnaissance Aircraft, ...

The alternative aviation magazine“With conventional aeroplanes you put left aileron on you’re going to roll left. At high angles of attack in the Phantom, put left aileron on and you’re quite likely ...

Rumours from China describe the J-10 performing well in DACT exercises against the far bigger Su-27/J-11. With a maximum G-rating of +9 / -3 and a maximum sustained turn load of 8.9g, the type has ...

The alternative aviation magazineIn World War I, two American pilots bet Fonck a bottle of champagne that one of them would shoot down an enemy plane before he did. Fonck lost the bet, but rather than ...

Despite its wooden construction, the Airone was noted for its ability to operate in unusually rough seas and was kept busy throughout the Second World War, raiding coastal installations, attacking ...

Piston-engined fighters ruled the roost for thirty years. A brutal survival of the fittest ensured a rapid evolution of these characterful machines; the final fighters were over six times faster and ...

In 2015, Research Fellow at the RUSI Think-tank Justin Bronk, compared Europe’s two middle-weight fighter aircraft, the Typhoon and Rafale, The relatively subtle differences between these two superbly ...

One of these fighter aircraft scored more air-to-air victories than any other Allied aircraft. Photo: Ronnie MacDonald/wiki There is a popular idea that the P-51 or Hellcat scored the most victories ...

Sensors The primary sensor is the AN/APG-83 AESA and an IRST based on the LEGION POD. Cockpit The F-35’s cockpit concept was probably a little ahead of the state-of-the-art in some aspects. It has ...

The Gloster Javelin was the world's first twin-jet delta-wing fighter. It was the Royal Air Force's best interceptor of the 1950s, and was almost brilliant. It did what it was asked to do. It was a ...

Join us as we take a look at some other masterpieces of Japanese indigenous design, whether conceived when the Empire swept all before it, or suffering the crushing reality of total defeat. 10.

Leading aces: Edward Thorn 12.33; Nicholas Cooke 10; Michael Young 9.83 Opinions vary on the Defiant. Some see it as the one of the worst fighters of World War 2; others regard it as a very ...