World War II

Miss Montana, a restored Douglas C-47A/DC-3C that was used in aerial firefighting after World War II, returned to Helena, Montana, on Monday, August 5, 2019, to commemorate a mission in which 12 of 15 smokejumpers, plus one person on the ground, lost their lives fighting the Mann Gulch Fire following their drop from the airplane. […]

Bringing together the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force in 2018 with the 75th anniversary of its first missions in 1944, the Silver Spitfire launched on August 5, 2019, on its round-the-world journey from Goodwood Aerodrome in southern England. The Silver Spitfire, MJ271, was one of the original aircraft built in 1943 in Castle […]

The event took years to plan, months to prepare, weeks to position and practice—and one day to execute. On the early evening of June 5, 2019, as clouds brooded over the Normandy countryside, a formation of Douglas C-47s and other DC-3 variants delivered on the mission to re-create a critical paratrooper drop commemorating the 75th […]

“When the kids came over in 1944, they didn’t have GPS…they didn’t have 500 hours of time in the cockpit between them,” says Doug Rozendaal, pilot of That’s All Brother, a Douglas C-47 joining the 2019 D-Day Squadron in an epic trip across the Atlantic Ocean this week. He considers his crew very fortunate: Not […]

The final member of an impressive breed of airmen passed away this week in San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 103. Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Dick Cole was the last surviving member of the famous Doolittle Raiders, the first U.S. forces to bring World War II to Japan following the devastating attack […]

Joseph Sorota, who died last week in Singer Island, Florida, was a guy few people might recognize when they first hear his name. But Sorota’s role within a secret GE engineering team known as the “Hush-Hush Boys” helped the Allies win World War II. More people might remember Royal Air Force officer Frank Whittle, the […]

Women in Aviation International (WAI), an organization dedicated to the encouragement and advancement of women in all aviation career fields and interests, just announced its 2017 inductees to the International Pioneer Hall of Fame. Inductees include the U.S. Navy’s first class of eight women aviators, who entered training in January 1973. Six women in that […]

The 11-day 75th Commemoration of the attack on Pearl Harbor culminated yesterday on the 75th anniversary of the tragic event that was the catalyst to U.S. involvement in World War II. In a surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii, more than 2,400 military service members and civilians […]

The North American P-51 named Tuskegee Airmen returned to the skies on December 1 after a gear-up incident earlier this year that caused major damage to the airframe. Commemorative Air Force Red Tail Squadron cofounder Doug Rozendaal took the controls for the first flight. “There were no issues with the test flight, and the aircraft […]

Willie Rogers, the oldest remaining member of the Tuskegee Airmen, has died at 101 years old. Rogers, a master sergeant in the first African-American military aviation squadron, died Friday evening from complications of a stroke, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Family members told the Times that Rogers wasn’t one to boast about his military […]