Warbirds

Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle described Robert A. “Bob” Hoover as “the greatest stick and rudder man who ever lived.” He was also among the most loved, as evidenced by the memorial celebration held in Hoover’s honor. More than 1,500 people gathered at Van Nuys Airport on a perfect CAVU day to remember the legendary aviator, […]

The first flight of the restored B-29 “Doc” in July was a huge achievement for the hundreds of volunteers who worked on the project, but the second flight, which took place last week, is also special — it’s proof that the first flight, despite a glitch in the fuel system that cut it short, was […]

The Coulson Air Tankers Martin Mars is back at its home base in British Columbia after being damaged in an accident at AirVenture 2016. CEO Wayne Coulson told AVweb the aircraft flew from Lake Winnebago to Port Alberni last Tuesday with temporary repairs to holes in the hull. The plane was immediately pulled to dry […]

Kermit Weeks always makes a splash at AirVenture but this may be his biggest ever. The serial aircraft collector and owner of Fantasy of Flight Museum in Florida will be part of the crew flying the massive Martin Mars flying boat from Vancouver Island in British Columbia to the seaplane base on Lake Winnebago on […]

The B-29 “Doc” will return to the air on July 17, the warbird’s restoration team announced Friday. The Superfortress’ first flight is slated to take place atMcConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, adjacent to the restoration hangar where volunteers worked for years to rebuild the four-engine heavy bomber. Doc’s Friends spokesman Josh Wells told AVweb […]

The restoration team for the B-29 “Doc” received Pentagon approval this week to use McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita for completing ground tests and future flight tests. The authorization allows Doc’s flight crew to work with base officials for arranging high-speed taxi tests, followed by a first flight. Josh Wells, a spokesman for Doc’s […]

No one was injured when a rare Second World War-era Lysander made an off-airport landing near Hamilton, Ontario, on Saturday. The aircraft was on a local sightseeing flight. Only the 64-year-old pilot and a 61-year-old British woman were on board when the engine failed. The aircraft, one of 42 warbirds operated by the Canadian Warplane […]

A U.S. Navy TBM-1C Avenger airplane, which had been missing since July 1944, was found last week about 85 feet deep in the Pacific Ocean, near the island nation of Palau, by Project Recover. The project is a collaborative effort between the Office of Naval Research, several universities and private funders, and is working to […]

A 56-year-old Florida man been identified as the pilot who died when the P-47 Thunderbolt he was flying went into the Hudson River off Manhattan late Friday. William Gordon was flying the aircraft on a photo flight with two other aircraft promoting the American Airpower Museum’s celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Thunderbolt, which […]

Puttering slowly across the tarmac, with only two of its four big engines slowly turning, might not seem like much of a feat for a B-29, but for Wichita’s “Doc,” it was a milestone — the low-speed taxi test was the first time in 60 years the airplane moved under its own power. The test […]