World War II

With the legendary WWII veteran’s passing at age 101, we reflect on his special service in the Berlin Airlift.

The U.S. Air Force has fewer than 300 active-duty Black pilots, and one just quit. Here’s why.

Decorated Air Force pilot who flew over 400 fighter combat missions between World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War passed away Sunday.

On December 20, 1941, an all-volunteer group of American mercenary pilots took on Japanese bombers in their first air combat mission to protect China.  By day’s end, the American Volunteer Group (AVG)—better known as the “Flying Tigers”—would go on to down nine out of 10 Japanese bombers in the first of many air battles in […]

For most people, a 100th birthday celebration might include a gathering of friends and family, some music, and maybe a slice or two of cake. Tom Rice took things a little further. Rice, who served as a paratrooper in World War II, celebrated passing the century mark by jumping from the Commemorative Air Force’s C-53D […]

Each July, the WWII Airborne Demonstration Team (ADT) conducts its annual Summer Jump School in Frederick, Oklahoma, at the site of the former WWII Frederick Army Air Field (FAAF). ADT has restored the sole remaining massive 79-year-old hangar where they house their Douglas C-47 and C-49, and train students who come to attend the 8-day […]

This spring, in Xenia, Ohio, a very special mission is planned to honor and celebrate the centennial birthday of Jim “Pee Wee” Martin. The Inland Empire Wing of the Commemorative Air Force in Riverside, California, has committed to flying its C-53D, D-Day Doll, to Xenia for the event on April 23 to 25, 2021, joined […]

First flown on December 17, 1935, the Douglas DC-3, an iteration of the DC-1 and DC-2, married reliability with performance and comfort in a way no other airplane had before. So much greater than the sum of its parts, an apt description for an airplane that has earned the right to be called “timeless” more […]

To honor and to serve: a consortium of aviation organizations came together to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, with a glorious parade of historic warbirds over Washington, DC-area skies on September 24, 2020. We take you behind the scenes as the crews fly practice runs over the Virginia countryside—and […]

World War II ended in a series of events marked by two prominent milestones in 1945—the end of the war in Europe in May, and the closing of the war in the Pacific in August and September, with the final conclusion of the war marked by the signing of the instrument of surrender of the […]