It was bought, with Flight Lieutenant Reid 's other medals, by a woman collector. He was flying at 21,000ft above the Dutch coast, his Lancaster bomber in a stream of hundreds heading for the target city of Dusseldorf , when it was hit by...

In this article: Victoria Cross, WWII, Germany, and Oxygen

...almost GBP350,000. An anonymous collector paid the huge sum for the VC, which was among a collection of medals that belonged to Lancaster bomber pilot Flight Lieutenant Bill Reid. Flt Lt Reid was awarded the VC, Britain 's highest gallantry...

In this article: Lancaster bomber, Victoria Cross, London, Britain, and Germany

...price for a Victoria Cross awarded to a Briton. Flt Lt Reid was honoured for his part in a bombing raid over Germany in 1943. He flew his Lancaster bomber 200 miles towards its target despite having been wounded in two separate fighter...

In this article: Victoria Cross, Lancaster bomber, Victoria Cross, Victoria Cross, Queen Victoria, London, and UK

...to Merville to reinforce No 3 Squadron. He was in action immediately and on the 15th he shared in the destruction of a Messerschmitt Bf 109 as the air battle reached its climax. For the next few days the Hurricane squadrons operated at...

In this article: RAF, Battle of Britain, Messerschmitt Bf 109, London, Tax, Battle of France, Heinkel 111, Hurricane fighters, and Messerschmitt Bf 110

The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was the first operational U.S. military aircraft designed specifically to use radar. The "Black Widow" was an all-metal, twin-engine, twin-boom, aircraft flown as a night-fighter by United States Army Air...

In this article: F-82 Twin Mustang, Luftwaffe, Plexiglas, Paul E. Garber, and California

The Fiat G.50 ''Freccia'' ("Arrow") was a World War II Italian fighter aircraft. It was the first Italian monoplane fighter with an enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gear to go into production. The Fiat G.50 was also used in small...

In this article: Fiat G.50, Fiat, Giuseppe Gabrielli, Fiat CR.42, Fiat Aviazione, Yugoslav Partisans, and Continuation War

...making them but just shows an inventory of the parts might be more boring still. And, finally, if that plane is not a Spitfire or a Lancaster bomber or anything cool like that, but a workhorse transport plane like the Lysander , it must be...

In this article: YouTube, Tax, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, Lancaster bomber, Lysander, DVD, and UK

The Fiat CR.32 was an Italian biplane fighter used in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. The CR.32 fought in North and East Africa , in Albania and in the Mediterranean theatre. The CR.32 saw service in the air forces of China , Austria ,...

In this article: Fiat CR.32, World War II, Spanish Civil War, Breda-SAFAT, Spain, Polikarpov I-16, Italy, and Tupolev SB-2

The Mitsubishi A6M Zero was a fighter aircraft operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS ) from 1940 to 1945. The origin of its official designation was that "A" signified a carrier-based fighter, "6" for the sixth such model...

In this article: A6M Zero, Mitsubishi, United States, Pearl Harbor, Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, Mitsubishi A5M, Pacific, and Code name

...where they were found by the Germans. Their final fate is not known. Overall claims by Belgian Fiat CR.42 were: eight Do 17, four Bf 109 and one Ju 52. The Swedish Air Force purchases of various types of Italian combat aircraft in...

In this article: Fiat, Fiat CR.42, Luftwaffe, Messerschmitt Bf 109, World War II, RAF, French Air Force, Turin, and Italy

...of Japanese rocketry. The Ki-43 prototype was produced in response to a December 1937 specification for a successor to the popular Nakajima Ki-27. The specification called for a top speed of 500 km/h (311 mph), a climb rate of 5,000 m...

In this article: Hayabusa, Ho-103 machine gun, Nakajima Ki-43, Mark I, Okinawa, New Guinea, Japanese home islands, and Peregrine Falcon

... Mitsubishi , and Kawasaki to design a low-wing monoplane to replace the Kawasaki Ki-10 ( Army Type 95 Fighter) biplane. The results were Nakajima Ki-27 , Kawasaki Ki-28 , and Mitsubishi Ki-33 (a modification of the Mitsubishi A5M carrier-based...

In this article: Nakajima Ki-27, Mitsubishi A5M, Trademark, World War II in the Pacific, P-51 Mustang, Brewster Buffalo, Battle of Khalkhin Gol, Nakajima Ki-12, and Mitsubishi Ki-33

...Air Force) squadrons. These achieved some success against the Italian Regia Aeronautica, which was mainly equipped with Fiat CR.32 and Fiat CR.42 biplanes, and against Luftwaffe bombers. They suffered heavier losses against Fiat G.50 and...

In this article: Gloster Gladiator, Royal Air Force, World War II, Winter War, Continuation War, Luftwaffe, UK, and Malta

...in the Merchant Marine when the Air Force drafted him at the end of World War II. He ended up a crew chief in occupied Japan , fixing P-61 Black Widow night fighters. Back home in Snow Shoe , he wasted little time making a living. With an old...

In this article: Exxon, Hamburger, Coal, and P-61 Black Widow

...them, it was not Chennault. For a time, he and his loyal team wreaked havoc on Japanese aircraft, but then they had to face the superior Mitsubishi Zero. Things improved when the Flying Tigers began to use the Curtiss P-40c Tomahawk. In due...

In this article: Claire Lee Chennault, Chiang Kai-shek, Joseph Stilwell, China, Pearl Harbor, Distinguished Service Medal, World War I, and World War II

...were not compromised. The leading Australian air ace Clive Caldwell , claimed the Folgore would have been superior to the Messerschmitt Bf 109 had it been better armed. The C.202 was lightly armed by the standards of the time carrying the...

In this article: Macchi C.202, Breda, Sicily, North Africa, Malta, RAF, Mario Castoldi, Italy, and P-39 Airacobra

...both British Commonwealth and Dutch air forces in South East Asia while facing the Japanese Navy 's A6M Zero and the Japanese Army 's Nakajima Ki-43 "Oscar". It also saw action with United States Marine Corps (USMC ) squadrons at the Battle of...

In this article: Brewster Buffalo, United States Navy, Royal Air Force, A6M Zero, and United States Marine Corps

...structure and used German Daimler-Benz engines. The SM.88 was created around 1938 and intended for export. Resembling the P-61 Black Widow , it was a light-medium, land based, multi-role fighter. This was a new concept for Italian...

In this article: World War II, Breda-SAFAT, MG 151 Cannon, Savoia-Marchetti, Savoia-Marchetti heavy fighter prototypes, P-61 Black Widow, Messerschmitt Bf 110, Macchi C.205, and P-38 Lightning