P-40 Warhawk (World Fighter Aircraft Collection)

The P-40 Warhawk was the best American fighter at the start of World War Two, made famous by Claire Chennault's "Flying Tigers" fighting against the Japanese in China, even before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In spite of their name, the Flying Tigers actually had a shark's mouth motif painted on the noses of their aircraft, a design they had previously seen on RAF P-40s flying in North Africa.   The Warhawk in this photo, flying at the 2009 Chino airshow, has a typical North Africa paint scheme as used by the 325th fighter group, combined with the shark's mouth.   It's also been modified with a passenger's seat behind the pilot.

EZ-Rocket (Unusual Aircraft Collection)

The EZ-Rocket is a very unusual variant of a very unusual aircraft called the Long-EZ.

As with many other weird-looking aircraft flying in the United States, the Long-EZ is a product of the creative genius of Burt Rutan, who is also responsible for designing Voyager (the first aircraft to fly around the world non-stop), the Beech Starship, and SpaceShipOne and its carrier aircraft WhiteKnight.   There are many other people who design strange planes, but Burt Rutan has been very successful both at making them work and selling them for a profit.

In 2003 Rutan's company announced that they were developing SpaceShipOne in an effort to win the 10 million dollar Ansari X-PRIZE for the first private craft to enter space.   Rutan won the competition in 2004, but they had plenty of competition, with 25 other companies developing their own craft.   One of these companies, called XCOR, did testing of their rocket engine by modifying a Long-EZ to produce the EZ-Rocket.   They removed the piston engine and propeller and replaced it with two rocket engines and a fuel tank under the fuselage.   To fly the EZ-Rocket they recruited Dick Rutan - Burt Rutan's brother!   Unlike the rocket planes developed by the United States Air Forceduring the 1960s, the EZ-Rocket takes off using its rocket engines rather than being dropped from a mother ship.   By flying ten miles from the Mojave airport to the California City airport in 2005, a new distance record was set for ground-launched rocket planes, and this flight also carried the first official US mail ever delivered by a rocket plane!   The EZ-rocket isn't the first ground-launched rocket plane, but earlier ones like the Me-163 Komet always landed at the airfield they took off from, so they didn't set any distance records.

MiG-15 "Fagot" (World Fighter Aircraft Collection)

A MiG-15 in Russian Air Force colors takes off during the 2007 "Aviation Nation" airshow held at Nellis Air Force Base.   The MiG-15 received the NATO reporting name "fagot".

When it entered combat in Korea it was clear that the MiG was far superior to western jet fighters like the British-design Gloster Meteorand the American F-80 Shooting Star and F-84 Thunderjet, all of which were straight-winged.   American aircraft had been able to roam largely unopposed throughout Korea, but the MiGs started taking a heavy toll on the B-29s and other piston-engined bombers, which had to be withdrawn from enemy airspace during daylight hours.

From this angle you can see the large cannons mounted under the MiG's nose, two 23mm cannon on the port side and a 37mm cannon on the starboard.   These had much more hitting power than the six50 caliber machine guns of the MiG-15's main enemy during theKorean war, the F-86 Sabre, however the MiG had a very limited amount of ammunition, only 160 rounds for the 23mm guns and 40 rounds for the 37mm.   The cannon were originally fitted to allow the MiG to destroy American bombers like the B-29 Superfortress, and it was much harder to hit small maneuverable fighters like the F-86.   On the other hand, as well as having heavy armament, the MiG-15 was also tough, some successfully returning to base after being thoroughly shot up by Sabres.

C-119 Flying Boxcar (Unusual Aircraft Collection)

The C-119 Flying Boxcar was developed soon after the end of World War Two and remained in service until 1974.   The twin-boom tail is very uncommon on a large aircraft, and the "jet pack" mounted on top of this version makes this one of the few aircraft powered both by piston engines and a jet engine.   Other planes with both types of powerplant include the P-2 Neptune and the B-36 Peacemaker bomber.

The twin-boom tail was fitted to allow paratroops to jump out of the clamshell cargo doors at the back of the plane without the risk of them hitting the tail.   American paratroops were dropped in this way over Korea during the Korean War, and the French used it in this way during the Indo-China war which evolved into the Vietnam War.   Another version of the Flying Boxcar was fitted with equipment to do mid-air recovery of exposed film dropped from spy satellites.   The AC-119G "Shadow" was given armor plating, four six-barrelled gatling guns and infra-red equipment so it could operate at night as a gunship.   The AC-119K "Stinger" was even better equipped, with two 20mm cannon and a jet engine under each wing so it could fly faster and carry a heavier load.

The Flying Boxcar is the aircraft that crashes in the desert in the 2004 movie "Flight of the Phoenix".   The character Elliot shows the other survivors how to disassemble the plane and rebuild it into a much cruder single engine aircraft which they then fly to safety.

F8F Bearcat and Mitsubishi Zero (World Fighter Aircraft Collection)

The Camarillo wing of the Commemorative Air Force fly their F8F Bearcat and Mitsubishi Zero at the 2007 Riverside airshow in metropolitan Los Angeles.

Although the Bearcat was specifically designed to counter Japanese fighters like the Zero, the two never met in combat because the Bearcat entered service slightly too late to fight in the war.

This is not only a nice formation of the Bearcat and Zero, but it also shows the Zero carrying a bomb.   Although it wasn't much of a fighter-bomber, Zeroes could carry up to two 132 pound bombs under normal conditions.   When used for kamikaze operations two 550 pound bombs were fixed to the aircraft with no release mechanism.