January - February 2021

Flight Journal

The Aviation Adventure - Past, Present & Future

Flight Journal2 min read
Very Rare Iron
When the Second World War ended in Europe on May 8, 1945, Group Captain Aleksander Gabszewicz, the Commanding Officer of No. 131 (Polish) Wing, had been flying combat missions since the beginning of the war when Germany first invaded his home country
Flight Journal1 min read
Flight Journal
Executive Editor Debra Cleghorn Editors Gerry Yarrish, Matt Boyd Bud Anderson, James P. Busha, Ted Carlson, Doug DeCaster, Robert S. DeGroat, John Dibbs, Jim Farmer, Paul Gillcrist, Phil Haun, Randy Jolly, Frederick Johnsen, Geoffrey P. Jones, Ron Ka
Flight Journal8 min read
Spitfire With A Punch
May 5, 1945. Flying at 8,000 feet and at just over 200 mph in his personal Spitfire Mk XVI TD240, Group Captain Aleksander Gabszewicz, the Commanding Officer of No. 131 (Polish) Wing, led 11 heavily laden, bomb-carrying Spitfires of 302 Squadron towa
Flight Journal3 min read
Origins of The “Boxing Bulldog”
The exact origin of Aleksander Gabszewicz’s “Boxing Bulldog” motif is something of a mystery and seems to pre-date its wider use by other Allied units. Photographs taken at RAF Northolt in April 1942, when Gabszewicz was the Commanding Officer of No.
Flight Journal2 min read
Spitfire TE311: From Gate Guardian to Airshow Favorite
Like all Mk XVI Spitfires, Spitfire Mk L.F. XVIe TE311 was manufactured at the Castle Bromwich Aeroplane Factory near Birmingham, England. It was built during 1945 as a low-back, clippedwing Packard Merlin 266-powered L.F. XVIe and delivered on June
Flight Journal2 min read
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
The Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (RAF BBMF), known at first as the Historic Aircraft Flight, was founded at RAF Biggin Hill, the famous Battle of Britain airfield in Kent. When it began on July 11, 1957, it only had three PR Mk X
Flight Journal8 min read
F-35b Lightning II Semper Fi
The three primary F-35 models are the A, B, and C (Israel also has an “I” model). We will be focusing on the Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) B model, which is the Marine Corps primary variant. The Marines are also procuring some aircraft-carrier
Flight Journal1 min read
F-35 Variants
The generic land-based and primary variant, with an internal gun. The majority of foreign operators fly the A model (and a few a mix of As and Bs). The Israelis have a specially modified A model with their own gear which was assigned as an I model. T
Flight Journal10 min read
Defender Of The Reich
Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring was in rare form, his eyes full of fire as he faced one of the better known of Germany’s aces, Oberst Walther Dahl. “Göring’s reply astonished even me,” Dahl remembered. “In the presence of pilots with heads, arms and l
Flight Journal3 min read
Saga of a Survivor: The Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum’s Collection’s Fw 190A-5
The Flying Heritage Collection (FHC) Focke-Wulf (based in Everett, Washington) is a Fw 190A-5 built in April 1943 as part of a batch of 981 aircraft at the F-W factory in Bremen. The FHC aircraft left the factory with the Stammkennzeichen (factory co
Flight Journal1 min read
Luftwaffe Aces And An Explanation
The validity of the high scores reported by German Fighter pilots is often questioned, so an explanation is in order. Each German claim for the destruction of an enemy aircraft in aerial combat (Abschuss) had to be confirmed by the Oberbefehlshaber d
Flight Journal2 min read
WACO “Super Sport” S3HD
The Super Sport is, in fact, a warbird camouflaged as a sport plane. Previous WACO incursions in military sales were commercial models modified to suit customers’ needs. In the Model D, WACO, at last, had a high-performance biplane designed from the
Flight Journal11 min read
Thunderchief At War
PICTURE, IF YOU WILL, a Mach-2-capable, all-weather fighterbomber that flies 1,000 feet above the ground on autopilot, while a Doppler navigation system steers it to a target 300 to 500 nautical miles distant. Then, at 550 knots, it runs in toward th
Flight Journal2 min read
THE SURVIVOR Atoll Missile Hits a Thud
Despite the aircraft’s vulnerability to small-arms fire, on November 7, 1967, an F-105D survived a proximity blast from a Russian Atoll airto-air missile fired from a North Vietnamese MiG-21. The strike force consisted of five four-ship flights of Th
Flight Journal1 min read
Join Our Team!
Do you have aviation in your blood? Crazy about aircraft and flying? Add your unique perspective to our content mix! We’re looking for flightline reporters and contributors to share their expertise and advice in videos and posts. (Original and unpubl
Flight Journal10 min read
Yellow Scorpions
Using Chinese airfields, the 311th Fighter Group was the first to take World War II to the Japanese. The 311th’s 530th Fighter Squadron, which became known as the “Yellow Scorpions,” was the first squadron based in China. During their combat tour, th
Flight Journal2 min read
Squadron Named By Japs Over Radio
The following article appeared in “CBI Roundup,” the official newspaper of the CBI Theater. Ever since it started winning a reputation for itself by knocking down Japanese planes over Burma, one of the crack P-51 Mustang fighter-bomber squadrons of t
Flight Journal1 min read
Pass the Armor-Piercing Rounds
In this photo from the Eighth Air Force’s famous 4th Fighter Group Debden Eagles, a parade of armorers prepare to install .50-caliber machine guns and armor-piercing ammo in the Group’s Mustangs. Note the pierced-steel planking that is being used as

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