Military Aviation in Brief

          Today features the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka , a single-engine monoplane attack aircraft with an unusual story and an equally unusual appearance. The Ju 87 was designed by Hermann Pohlmann for Junkers. A prototype flew in 1935, and the plane entered service after in 1937. During the early years of World War 2, the Ju 87 was commonly featured in Nazi propaganda after finding success in the invasion of Poland. Around 6,000 Ju 87s were constructed between their entry into service and 1944, when it was determined that without air superiority in Europe, Ju 87s were too vulnerable to continue flying sorties.     The Ju 87 was designed based on the philosophy that dive bombers should be simple and robust. Its inverted gull wings provided several benefits. Firstly, they generated more lift at low speeds, which improved performance during takeoff and landing. The dip in the center of the wing gave the pilot better visibility to the front of the ai...

        It's time to look at the most produced aircraft of World War II: the  Ilyushin Il-2. The story of the Il-2 begins in Soviet Russia in 1938, when Sergei Ilyushin proposed the idea of a "flying tank" to Joseph Stalin. Two prototypes were ordered and saw their first flights in October of 1939. The aircraft was adopted quickly after testing, but only 70 aircraft were wholly in service with the Soviet Air Forces by the time Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union produced 36,183 examples of Il-2, a record only topped by the Cessna 172. With so many aircraft produced, it was only inevitable it would receive some nicknames. German pilots called the Il-2 the " Betonflugzeug " (concrete plane) or " Betonvogel " (concrete bird) because of how difficult it was to shoot down. German infantrymen instead called it " der Schwarze Tod " (Black Death) due to its efficiency in the air to ground role. Soviet pilots called the Il-2 "...

        The Messerschmitt Bf 109 (or sometimes Me 109) was designed in the 1930s by Wilhelm E. Messerschmitt in response to a request from the German Luftwaffe  for an advanced light fighter.  The initial prototype plane flew in September of 1935 and was powered by a British Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine. Restrictions from the Treaty of Versailles had heavily impacted the development of domestic German engines. The fighter was first revealed to the world in the 1936 Olympic Games hosted in Berlin. It would be tested in its first combat encounters in the middle following year, as early Bf 109s were delivered to Spain to be used by German volunteers aiding Spanish Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. The Bf 109 was used primarily by Germany, but was also flown in Bulgaria, the Hungary, Italy, Romania, Spain, and the puppet state of Croatia. Mostly countries part of or aligned with the Axis powers of World War Two. Over the course of its life, the Bf 109 became...

       C reeping up to the eve of World War II, we'll take a look at the Hawker Hurricane. The Hurricane was designed by Sydney Camm at Hawker Aircraft in the early 30s. After the first prototype flew in 1935, the Board of Directors quickly ordered the production of 1,000 Hawker Hurricanes, gambling that it would be accepted by the Royal Air Force. In June of 1936, the plane passed air trials with flying colors, finally entering full adoption in 1937. The Hurricane served with several countries in the British Commonwealth, including Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the British Raj. It also found a home with a wide variety of other countries, including Finland, Greece, South Africa, Iran, Portugal, and more. The Hurricane continued to be iterated upon through its introduction in service until production was halted in 1944, resulting in 14,483 aircraft being produced across 24 variants.     The original design for the Hawker Hurricane was ...

       The interwar period saw developments in countries beyond just the West. The Soviet Polikarpov I-16 was developed in 1933, following Nikolai Polikarpov's conditional release from imprisonment on espionage charges in 1931. I-16s served in the USSR with the Soviet Air Forces, the Republic of China in the Chinese Nationalist Air Force, and the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. It acquired several names from its operators and opponents, with the Soviets dubbing it the " Ishak " (donkey), and the Spanish calling it the " Rata " (rat) or " Mosca " (fly). Over the duration of its service 10,292 I-16s were built including two-seated trainer aircraft. The I-16 was the primary fighter of the Soviet Air Forces up until 1941, when it was quickly discovered to be obsolete against more contemporary German aircraft.     At the time of its development t he I-16 was a revolutionary design, being the first low-wing monoplane with retractable landing g...

        It's time to move beyond World War I and into the Interwar period, between 1918 and 1939. The Boeing P-26 was a milestone development in 1931. It was the first all-metal monoplane to enter service with the U.S. Army Air Corps, but would be the last aircraft to serve with an open cockpit, fixed, non-retractable landing gear, and external wing braces. The P-26 was somewhat derogatorily called the "Peashooter" by its pilots, referencing either the long, thin tube housing the gunsight, or the gun blast tubes which prevented firing the guns from damaging the fuselage. It quickly became obsolete following further aviation developments, but served up until World War II. In fact, P-26s claimed the first American victories over Japanese airplanes when Philippine pilots responded to Japanese attacks on the islands following the attack on Pearl Harbor.     The P-26 was developed following a theory that fighters should be as light and small as possible for...

      Germany employed several notable combat craft throughout the first World War. In this post we'll focus on the Albatros D.III. Designed by  Albatros Flugzeugwerke, the D.III was a fairly straightforward development based on previous Albatros models. It entered German service in December of 1916, and was also license-built in Austria-Hungary. The Albatros is largely credited with bringing the German  Luftstreitkräfte  air superiority during the early months of 1917 in a period of the war known as Bloody April. Throughout the period, the British Royal Flying Corps suffered somewhere between 245 and 275 air losses. The Germans would lose 66 aircraft. The D.III undoubtedly made its mark on the war during Bloody April, but would be outclassed in the latter months of 1917 as new fighters such as the Sopwith Camel and SPAD S.XIII were introduced onto the battlefield.     The Albatros D.III  was an iterative design that built upon the previ...