The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a subsonic, eight-engined heavy strategic bomber conceived in the early Cold War to deliver nuclear weapons anywhere on the globe without relying on intermediate bases. It has flown with the United States…
The Douglas DC-7 was the last large piston-engined airliner built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, produced between 1953 and 1958 as a direct derivative of the DC-6. It answered a very specific request from American Airlines: an aircraft…
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engined turboprop military transport aircraft, designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin), with a high wing and a rear loading ramp. Conceived to carry troops, cargo and casualties…
The Lockheed U-2 is a high-altitude strategic reconnaissance aircraft: a single-seater with enormously long, narrow wings, one jet engine and a structure pared down to the lightest airframe its designers could get away with, conceived in…
First flown on December 6, 1957, the Lockheed L-188 Electra was the first large turboprop airliner built in the United States. Its passenger career proved short, yet the sturdy airframe went on to a long second life hauling cargo and…
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a large two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather fighter that McDonnell Aircraft designed for the United States Navy as a fleet defence interceptor and which proved equally capable as a fighter-bomber and…
The Convair 880 was an American narrow-body jet airliner that first flew on 27 January 1959 and entered service with Delta Air Lines in 1960. Marketed on sheer speed, it proved a commercial failure, with only 65 aircraft built.