Underwing carriage of torpedoes, bombs, or depth charges made the Kawanishi H8K1 and H8K2 lethal sub and shipping hunters. But their debut as land bombers the night of March 4, 1942, proved inauspicious when cloud cover obscured the prized target of Honolulu. The largely unheralded second attack by the Japanese on Oahu was a bust.
Of Wings & Things
A monoplane and a half
Sesquiplanes enjoyed a moment in the sun as designers grappled with the robust structural truss integrity of biplanes versus the lower drag of monoplanes. Sesquiplanes, effectively a “monoplane and a half,” as described by aviation historian Joseph Juptner, used an abbreviated lower wing to enable bracing, while keeping overall span short, and reducing drag below that of a full-bore biplane.
Bittersweet end for the last B-17s in the Air Force
Radio-controlled B-17s were first used to bomb Germany, but after World War II, the Air Force found several other uses for the drones, known as QB-17, including taking radioactive samples, water ditching tests, and testing antiaircraft missiles.
Max Biegert: Runways and railroads
While chatting with the folks working on B-17 firebombers at the Mesa, Arizona, airport on a brisk winter day in 1980, someone said I needed to meet Max Biegert, the man responsible for getting the B-17F registered N17W out of a city park in Arkansas and returning it to flight as a large sprayer and air tanker. That B-17 now holds a place of honor in the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Kinner’s bold Envoy design
A general aviation airplane ahead of its time.
World’s oldest Liberator is the CAF’s crown jewel
The Commemorative Air Force’s B-24 Diamond Lil has been flying more than 80 years. More than a half-century of that time has been under CAF stewardship. Lil has never looked better.
Hamilton Metalplane’s pedigree
There’s a reason the Hamilton Metalplane reminds you of a Ford Trimotor. The original Ford 3-AT Trimotor, as well as the Hamilton aircraft, were worked on by a young aircraft designer named James McDonnell — yes, that James McDonnell.
de Havilland’s diminutive Fox Moth
If front-line British warplanes advanced with the global state of the art from the 1930s into the postwar 1940s, some smaller utility aircraft remained delightfully unfazed by the eternal quest for speed or modernity. Such was the case with de Havilland’s diminutive Fox Moth biplane.
SPAD for two
While the French SPAD single-seat fighters were ace-makers, disappointing performance and maneuverability in the two-seat derivatives failed to justify their use as a fighter. Instead, the two-seat versions earned a niche in the war as bomber and reconnaissance aircraft.