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Midway 70 Years Later: The Sea-based Air Order of Battle — JAPAN
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Midway 70 Years Later: The Sea-based Air Order of Battle — JAPAN

BySteeljawscribe

KIDO BUTAI First Carrier Striking Force VADM Nagumo Chuichi Chief of Staff: RADM Kusaka Ryunosuke Carrier Division 1 – VADM Nagumo Akagi (flagship) – Captain Aoki Taijiro, commanding 18 x A6M2 carrier fighters (aka Zero) 18 x D3A1 carrier bombers (aka Val) 18 x B5N2 carrier attack aircraft (aka Kate) 6 x A6M2 fighters (6th…

Mach 6.5 At 100K Feet…

BySteeljawscribe

Perhaps you remember this: or this: Roll out the TFH crowd because: “The Air Force has awarded Lockheed’s Advanced Development Projects arm a top-secret contract to develop a stealthy 4,000-mph plane capable of flying to altitudes of about 100,000 feet, with transcontinental range. The plan is to debut the craft around 2020. The new jet…

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This Date in Naval Aviation History: 15 Apr 1969 – Deep Sea 129

BySteeljawscribe

The weak can be rash. The powerful must be restrained.– Secretary of State William Rogers, April 1969   For most of these past several weeks, international attention has been focused on the activities taking place near a peninsula on the north-east coast of Korea.   There, despite protests and warnings from around the world, the…

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Doolittle’s Raiders: Last Surviving Bomber Pilot of WWII Doolittle Raid, Dies at 93

BySteeljawscribe

The last pilot from the Doolittle raid, Col Bill Bower, USAF-Ret., passed away Jan 10 at his home in Boulder CO: As a 25-year-old first lieutenant, Col. Bower commanded one of the 16 Army Air Forces’ B-25s in the top-secret mission under the direction of then-Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle. Col. Bower and the 79…

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The Solomons Campaign: Battle of Santa Cruz (II)

BySteeljawscribe

Overnight: 25-26 October During the night, crews on the Hornet positioned aircraft on the flightdeck if the prospects of a night strike by moonlight made themselves present.  In the meantime, PBY Catalina’s, using the first crude airborne radar sets, continued to try to locate the Japanese fleet in the darkness.  Shortly after midnight, one PBY…