Classic Aircraft: Westland Lysander
Even for aircraft, faster is not always better. Some aircraft have achieved fame because of their exceptional low-speed flight characteristics.…
Mike Markowitz
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Camels at War
Superbly adapted to the desert, the single-humped Arabian camel was domesticated around 4000 B.C. for its meat, milk, and wool,…
CSS Shenandoah and the Last Shot of the Civil War
It is a matter of odd historical fact that the last shot of the American Civil War was a blank…
Women With Guns: The Red Army Female Snipers of World War II
“Warfare is…the one human activity from which women, with the most insignificant exceptions, have always and…
Israel’s Heavy Armored Personnel Carriers
Unlike some armies, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) does not need to airlift equipment all over the globe. Israel’s wars…
Rangers in World War II
In the decades after the Civil War, the U.S. Army saw little need for specialist Rangers. “Small wars” were…
Pegasus Bridge
The French phrase coup de main literally means “a strike of the hand.” In military jargon, it means “an offensive…
The DFS 230 Assault Glider
In 1919, the Versailles Treaty declared, “the manufacture and importation of aircraft, parts of aircraft, engines for aircraft, and parts…
World War II German Helicopters – Doblhoff WNF 342
In 1941, Friedrich von Doblhoff (1916-2000) a junior engineer at Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke (Vienna-Neustadt Aircraft Factory, which assembled Bf 109…
World War II German Helicopters – Flettner Fl 265 and Fl 282
For the German Navy, facing war without its own aircraft carriers, the helicopter seemed promising as an observation platform and…