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Air Operations and Campaigns
The Rhodesian Bush War
It is the mid-1970s in Africa. The small land-locked nation of Rhodesia, sitting northeast of its neighbour South Africa, is economically successful but militarily and politically troubled. It is under international scrutiny, with trade to the country limited. The...
Operation Okra
In the early 2010s, ISIS emerged as a dominant extremist group, rapidly expanding across Iraq and Syria by exploiting political instability and conflict. ISIS originated from al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which capitalized on the instability following the 2003 U.S. invasion...
Desert Storm – First Strike
It is the morning of January 16th 1991. Within the next 24 hours, coalition forces will undertake a precision aerial campaign against Iraqi forces, in what will be known as Operation Desert Storm. Desert Storm will see almost 4000 aircraft mobilised by both sides,...
Air Forces
How good is Venezuela’s Air Force?
Venezuela’s security environment has grown more complex because of U.S. counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean and visible aerial patrols with platforms like the B-52 Stratofortress. In response, Venezuelan officials have accused the United States of...
Indian vs Pakistani Air Power
On April 22, 2025, a terrorist attack in the Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir marked a sharp escalation in Indo-Pakistani tensions. The attack claimed the lives of 26 civilians, primarily Hindu tourists, and was attributed to The Resistance...
Sixth-Generation Air Power
Article by Gregor Ferguson for Wings Magazine Vol. 77 No.1 wingsmagazine.org THE RAAF IS ONE of the first air forces in the world to field a genuine fifth-generation capability. And it could field a sixth-generation replacement for its fourth-generation F/A-18F Super...
American Aircraft
How the F-102 Became a Night Fighter in Vietnam
During the early years of the Vietnam War, the century series of fighters would be deployed to act in a variety of roles, before the mass rollout of the F-4 Phantom. These aircraft - all designs from the early to mid 50s, created to fill gaps realised during the...
F4F Wildcat vs A6M Zero
Discount Code for our F-16 T-shirts: STROKE3 https://peacemaker.fashion/en-aud/products/f-16 December 1941 marked the beginning of the Pacific War. For the US Navy, the role of frontline fighter was chiefly filled by the F4F Wildcat, a simple but robust design. For...
The Doomsday Planes
In 1960, the United States Air Force initiated Operation Looking Glass, the conversion of five KC-135s into airborne command and control centres. In the case of nuclear war, these aircraft would take off with top military personnel, and from the skies could mirror the...
Biographies
Life of a Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot | Oskar Ziesig
Oskar Ziesig, born in 1919 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany near Essen, recounts his life and career as a Luftwaffe pilot during World War 2 in this August 13, 2004 interview conducted in Australia. Interview with Oskar Ziesig, 13th August 2004, Australians at War...
Top Vietnam War Aces
During the Vietnam War, pilots would square-off using many new technologies. For the first time, air-to-air missiles would be used, allowing for longer range combat, and more intense dogfights. Early guidance systems would be used to line bombs up over the target, and...
Battle of the Aces: Erich Hartmann vs Hans-Joachim Marseille
Notes: When it comes to fighter aces, the Luftwaffe remains unmatched. Despite having no such title of ‘ace’ during World War 2, the Luftwaffe forged over 2500 pilots who would be classified by the allied standard as ‘ace’. The highest scoring of these aces stand...
British Aircraft
Vertical Ambition: The Harrier and the History of V/STOL Combat Aviation
In the long arc of combat aviation history, few aircraft can claim to have redefined the battlefield paradigm quite like the Harrier. Forged in the crucible of Cold War urgency and engineered with British daring, the Harrier family of Vertical/Short Take-Off and...
Meteor vs Me 262
World War II marked the debut of jet-powered aircraft in combat. By the war’s end, several nations had fielded operational jets in roles from high-speed interceptors to experimental fighters. Among these pioneering machines, two stood out: the German Messerschmitt Me...
Avro 707 & Vulcan: Britain’s Delta Wing Revolution
The 707 Test Beds In the late 1940s Britain, the delta wing and crescent wing were under serious scrutiny for the next generation of bombers. For the British, this was part of the atomic weapon programme, looking for a new generation of long-range bombers that would...
Chinese Aircraft
China’s new J-36
In December 2024, images from China confirmed the existence of a new, sixth-generation aircraft in testing. A tailless design, it appeared to be a crewed aircraft, possibly a strike fighter. Now, almost one year later, images confirm that a second prototype has...
China’s J-36 & J-50 – First Impressions
China’s New Tailless Jets It was on December the 26th, 2024, that images started to emerge from China of what appeared to be two new stealthy jets performing test flights. After a month, we still know little about these aircraft apart from what can be extrapolated...
J-20 China’s Answer to the F-22
In the 1990s, the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force was looking for a new fifth gen fighter. During the early 2000s a competition was run, known in the West as the F-XX program. The winner of this program was Chengdu, who’s design - the J-20 Mighty Dragon - is now...
European Aircraft
SAAB Jets
Since the start of the Cold War, Europe’s ability to manufacture military aircraft has decreased dramatically. Today, only a select few fighter aircraft are built on the continent. Large multinational projects have resulted in the Eurofighter, whilst France’s...
The Dassault Rafale
The Dassault Rafale The Dassault Rafale represents a pinnacle of French aerospace engineering, embodying a multirole combat aircraft designed to perform a wide spectrum of missions with precision and adaptability. Since its inception, the Rafale has been a critical...
RAAF Mirage IIIO
Mirage IIIO in Australian Service By the mid-1950s the RAAF started to consider a replacement for the Australian produced CAC Sabre. A joint evaluation team from the Departments of Air and Supply toured Europe and North America in 1960 to consider Australia’s options....
German Aircraft
Meteor vs Me 262
World War II marked the debut of jet-powered aircraft in combat. By the war’s end, several nations had fielded operational jets in roles from high-speed interceptors to experimental fighters. Among these pioneering machines, two stood out: the German Messerschmitt Me...
Focke-Wulf Ta 152 – High Altitude Interceptor
During World War II, one of the most crucial elements of the air war was the ability to safely secure passage for bombers into enemy territory, strike targets, and get out without catastrophic losses. Early on, the Luftwaffe held the advantage, and from this...
Nazi Jet Bombers of WW2
Most pilots and aviation enthusiasts are aware of the Nazi role in developing jet aircraft. Both the Me 262 and Me 163 Komet are remembered as deadly fighter and interceptor aircraft, but they were just some of the many jet concepts which emerged during the...
Japanese Aircraft
F4F Wildcat vs A6M Zero
Discount Code for our F-16 T-shirts: STROKE3 https://peacemaker.fashion/en-aud/products/f-16 December 1941 marked the beginning of the Pacific War. For the US Navy, the role of frontline fighter was chiefly filled by the F4F Wildcat, a simple but robust design. For...
Viper Zero: Japan’s Mighty F-2 Fighter
In the early 1980s, Japan’s government set out to bolster its domestic aviation industry by developing a new fighter aircraft from scratch. What followed was a complex decade of negotiations with the United States, resulting in a unique compromise: a Japanese-built...
Bf 109 vs A6M Zero: Which Axis fighter was superior?
Psychology of Flying
The Mind of the Kamikaze
In late 1944, Japan’s military turned to a deadly and radical tactic: suicide attacks by pilots known as kamikaze, or “divine wind.” These young men, often in their late teens, flew explosive-laden aircraft into Allied ships, sacrificing themselves to delay defeat....
The Psychology of the Fighter Pilot
Fighter pilots operate where split seconds and mental clarity define outcomes. A dogfight—whether in a Bf 109 over the Eastern Front or an F/A-18 in a TOPGUN drill—hinges on three core traits: focus, aggression, and rapid decision-making. These aren’t abstract...
Soviet/Russian Aircraft
The forgotten Soviet VTOL jets
The Yakovlev Design Bureau began exploring VTOL concepts in 1960, influenced by British efforts (the Hawker P.1127/Kestrel). In response to a 1961 contract for a single-seat VTOL fighter, Yakovlev proposed the Yak-36 (NATO: “Freehand”) with twin engines, each feeding...
SU-30 – Russia’s Best Jet?
INTRO Since the late 1980s, the Flanker has stood as one of the most reliable multirole fighter platforms in Russia and across many Eastern nations. Much like the F-15 has come to symbolize Western air superiority, the Flanker has emerged as a defining icon of Eastern...
The Ilyushin Il-20: Soviet Ground-Attack Prototype of 1948
The Ilyushin Il-20 was a Soviet prototype ground-attack aircraft developed in 1948 by the Ilyushin Design Bureau, intended as a replacement for the Il-10. It came out of a 1947 Soviet Air Force requirement for a new attack plane with better performance and firepower...
Space
Every Apollo Mission
We trace the Apollo program from Cold War origins to its collaborative finale, showing how disciplined engineering turned an audacious goal into reality. Let’s start with a list of all the missions: Uncrewed Test Missions Apollo 1 (AS-204) – Intended to be first...
Inventing the Space Shuttle
Orbital Bombers
This article by Michael Nelmes is from the Spring 2023 issue of Wings Magazine - Subscribe to Wings https://wingsmagazine.org/
Unmanned Systems
Countering Small UAS Threats
Countering UASs - Summary of an article by Gregor Ferguson for Wings magazine. In an era where uncrewed aerial systems (UASs), have proliferated and flourished on battlefields from Europe to the Red Sea, the technical challenge now is not so much to weaponise UASs, as...
Weapon Systems
The Evolution of Cruise Missiles
Cruise and guided missile had become one of the most decisive precision weapons on the battlefield. Used for the first strikes of Operation Desert Storm, and to a similar effect during the invasion of Iraq. Now, their legacy continues in the Russo-Ukrainian...
AIM-7 Sparrow: The Missile That Changed Air Combat
In the 1960s, beyond-visual-range combat would become possible for the first time. Semi-active radar guided technology allowed for an aircraft to locate a target, transmit this information to a missile computer, and then guide the weapon to its target. During...
How one missile changed air combat: The AIM-9 Sidewinder
Over seven decades ago, a new guided missile system emerged that would come to define modern air combat. Born out of a late-1940s research project to develop guided rockets, this weapon was infrared-guided with only rear-aspect tracking capability in its earliest...