The Landing Pattern

Grumman built the A-6 to put a heavy bomb load on a ship or a target ashore when weather and darkness grounded almost everything else. The Navy wanted a…

Boeing designed the B-52 in the early Cold War as a high-altitude nuclear bomber. The XB-52 first flew on 15 April 1952. The type entered Air Force service in…

Convair built the B-58 to do what no bomber had done: hold Mach 2 in level flight and put a nuclear weapon on a distant target before fighters or missiles could catch it. The prototype first flew at Fort Worth on 11 November 1956 and went supersonic before the year was out.

Clarence “Kelly” Johnson and Lockheed’s Skunk Works built the U-2 in secret for the CIA. The “U” stood for utility, a cover for a jet meant to fly above Soviet fighters and early missiles.

The North American A-5 Vigilante was the most advanced carrier aircraft of its generation. Built as a nuclear strike bomber, it spent almost its entire career as a high-speed reconnaissance jet.

The F-15A first flew in 1972, built for air-to-air combat with high thrust-to-weight and low wing loading for tight, energy-retaining turns. The F-15C/D arrived in 1979 with more fuel and conformal-tank capability, followed by a 1983 upgrade adding a faster computer, better electronic warfare gear, and a new radar. Guided by a head-up display and pulse-Doppler radar, F-15Cs claimed 34 of the Air Force’s 37 air-to-air kills in Desert Storm while F-15Es hunted Scuds at night. The type went on to fly over Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, still with no confirmed air-to-air losses.

The Blue Angels have flown nine primary demonstration aircraft since 1946, beginning with the F6F Hellcat and F8F Bearcat and moving through the Panther, Cougar, Tiger, Phantom II, Skyhawk, and F/A-18 Hornet to today’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

The AV-8B Harrier II was the second-generation V/STOL attack jet built around the Rolls-Royce Pegasus vectored-thrust engine. It gave the U.S.